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Medium5.5Red Hat Linux

Medium [CVE-2026-74478] fix use-after-free in vector_mmsg_rx

This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-74478.

CVE-2026-74478 Published Aug 15, 2026Updated by vendor Aug 15, 2026
Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxUnclassified
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Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: um: vector: fix use-after-free in vector_mmsg_rx() When vector_mmsg_rx() discards a packet whose overlay header fails verify_header(), it frees the skb and continues the loop: if (header_check estats.rx_encaps_errors++; continue; } The normal and short-packet paths fall through to the bottom of the loop body, which clears the consumed slot and advances the cursors: (*skbuff_vector) = NULL; mmsg_vector++; skbuff_vector++; The verify_header() < 0 path skips that via continue, so the freed skb is left in skbuff_vector[] and the cursors do not advance.

The next iteration reads the same slot, gets the freed skb, and frees it again, producing a refcount underflow / use-after-free in the RX path. Discard the slot the same way the other paths do before continuing.

Only transports whose verify_header() can return negative are affected: GRE and L2TPv3 do so on a cookie/session-id mismatch (raw/tap do not), so any peer on such a transport can trigger it without authentication. A remote attacker, by sending specially crafted packets over GRE or L2TPv3 transports, could trigger a use-after-free vulnerability.

This occurs in the `vector_mmsg_rx()` function when a packet's overlay header fails verification, causing the system to attempt to free an already freed network buffer. This issue leads to a denial of service.

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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