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CVE-2026-43244

medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kcm: fix zero-frag skb in frag_list on partial sendmsg error Syzkaller reported a warning…

Vendor / product: Linux — linux kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kcm: fix zero-frag skb in frag_list on partial sendmsg error Syzkaller reported a warning in kcm_write_msgs() when processing a message with a zero-fragment skb in the frag_list. When kcm_sendmsg() fills MAX_SKB_FRAGS fragments in the current skb, it allocates a new skb (tskb) and links it into the frag_list before copying data. If the copy subsequently fails (e.g. -EFAULT from user memory), tskb remains in the frag_list with zero fragments: head skb (msg being assembled, NOT yet in sk_write_queue) +-----------+ | frags[17] | (MAX_SKB_FRAGS, all filled with data) | frag_list-+--> tskb +-----------+ +----------+ | frags[0] | (empty! copy failed before filling) +----------+ For SOCK_SEQPACKET with partial data already copied, the error path saves this message via partial_message for later completion. For SOCK_SEQPACKET, sock_write_iter() automatically sets MSG_EOR, so a subsequent zero-length write(fd, NULL, 0) completes the message and queues it to sk_write_queue. kcm_write_msgs() then walks the frag_list and hits: WARN_ON(!skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags) TCP has a similar pattern where skbs are enqueued before data copy and cleaned up on failure via tcp_remove_empty_skb(). KCM was missing the equivalent cleanup. Fix this by tracking the predecessor skb (frag_prev) when allocating a new frag_list entry. On error, if the tail skb has zero frags, use frag_prev to unlink and free it in O(1) without walking the singly-linked frag_list. frag_prev is safe to dereference because the entire message chain is only held locally (or in kcm->seq_skb) and is not added to sk_write_queue until MSG_EOR, so the send path cannot free it underneath us. Also change the WARN_ON to WARN_ON_ONCE to avoid flooding the log if the condition is somehow hit repeatedly. There are currently no KCM selftests in the kernel tree; a simple reproducer is available at [1]. [1] https://gist.github.com/mrpre/a94d431c757e8d6f168f4dd1a3749daa

CVSS
5.5
5.5 (CVSS v3.1)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Severity source: NVD CVSS v3.1 (nvd@nist.gov)
Timeline (UTC)
Published: 2026-05-06 12:16
Modified: 2026-10-30 13:18
NVD status: Modified
Last synced 3 days ago
Verified against the source API 2026-10-30 13:38 UTC
Exploitation
Not listed in CISA KEV (as of last catalog sync)
Absence from KEV does not mean a CVE is not exploited. Exploitation status: unknown (no authoritative evidence in our sources).

Affected products

linux / linux_kernel ≥4.6 <6.12.75, ≥6.13 <6.18.16, ≥6.19 <6.19.6, 7.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

Source: NVD / CISA. “NVD-CWE-Other” and “NVD-CWE-noinfo” mean NVD could not assign a specific weakness.

Mitigation & advisories

Patch / mitigation: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7af58f76e4b404a74c836881a845e6652db8a09f
Patch / mitigation: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9ea3671d70ee07480d80bebe86696397c4e99fb7
Patch / mitigation: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1e3edf688a88c1a3ac41657055d9c136a08cd25
Patch / mitigation: https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ca220141fa8ebae09765a242076b2b77338106b0

References

Data sources

NVD CVE API 2.0 — fetched 2026-10-30 13:38 UTC · record ↗

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