Medium [CVE-2026-68296] Linux kernel: GRE tunnel deadlock leads to Denial of Service
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-68296 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26, Red Hat package: kernel.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: gre: fix lltx regression for GRE tunnels with SEQ/CSUM Before commit 00d066a4d4ed ("netdev_features: convert NETIF_F_LLTX to dev->lltx"), NETIF_F_LLTX was set unconditionally in both __gre_tunnel_init() and ip6gre_tnl_init_features() alongside GRE_FEATURES: dev->features |= GRE_FEATURES | NETIF_F_LLTX; When that commit converted NETIF_F_LLTX to the dev->lltx flag, it placed 'dev->lltx = true' after the SEQ/CSUM early returns instead of before them.
This causes GRE/GRETAP/ip6gre tunnels with SEQ or CSUM+encap to lose lockless TX, reintroducing _xmit_lock acquisition around their ndo_start_xmit. Since GRE xmit re-enters the stack via ip_tunnel_xmit(), holding _xmit_lock risks ABBA deadlock with the underlay device.
CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(&qdisc_xmit_lock_key#6); lock(&qdisc_xmit_lock_key#3); lock(&qdisc_xmit_lock_key#6); lock(&qdisc_xmit_lock_key#3); Fix by moving dev->lltx = true before the early returns in both functions, restoring the original unconditional behavior. A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel implementation.
An issue with how lockless transmission was handled for GRE tunnels with Sequence Number (SEQ) or Checksum (CSUM) features could lead to a deadlock.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
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