Local privilege escalation via oversized TUN packet
Published Jul 24, 2023 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Out-of-bounds write in the Linux kernel TUN/TAP driver in affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases allows local users to crash the host. With NAPI fragments enabled, tun_napi_alloc_frags fails to reject packet lengths above the Ethernet MTU allocation limit before building the socket buffer. A local user able to write an oversized IPv6 packet to a TUN/TAP device can corrupt kernel memory, causing a crash or privilege escalation.
Summary
What happened
Out-of-bounds write in the Linux kernel TUN/TAP driver in affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases allows local users to crash the host. With NAPI fragments enabled, tun_napi_alloc_frags fails to reject packet lengths above the Ethernet MTU allocation limit before building the socket buffer. A local user able to write an oversized IPv6 packet to a TUN/TAP device can corrupt kernel memory, causing a crash or privilege escalation.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-3812
- Published
- Jul 24, 2023
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Red Hat
- Product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support
- Classifications
- CWE-787, T1499, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 24, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Affected versions are unavailable in this record. Check the vendor advisory for version and patch details.
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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