Host OOM panic via short-frame page leak
Published Jun 9, 2026 · Updated Jun 9, 2026
Denial of service in the Linux Kernel TUN driver allows local users to exhaust host memory through undersized vhost-net TX frames. The tun_xdp_one() short-frame error path returns -EINVAL without freeing the page allocated by vhost_net_build_xdp(), while tun_sendmsg() reports success and prevents batch cleanup. A local process must open /dev/net/tun and /dev/vhost-net, attach TUN/TAP as the backend, and repeatedly submit short TX descriptors to trigger an OOM panic.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the Linux Kernel TUN driver allows local users to exhaust host memory through undersized vhost-net TX frames. The tun_xdp_one() short-frame error path returns -EINVAL without freeing the page allocated by vhost_net_build_xdp(), while tun_sendmsg() reports success and prevents batch cleanup. A local process must open /dev/net/tun and /dev/vhost-net, attach TUN/TAP as the backend, and repeatedly submit short TX descriptors to trigger an OOM panic.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-46321
- Published
- Jun 9, 2026
- Updated
- Jun 9, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 9, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 9, 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=049584807f1d797fc3078b68035450a9769eb5c3 <37a1c268c2c8090bf4dc552d732bd23ba36f8eb0
- Affected versionversion=049584807f1d797fc3078b68035450a9769eb5c3 <69863ff2720a0e9871f1a5710f2a33a94217fee0
- Affected versionversion=049584807f1d797fc3078b68035450a9769eb5c3 <98c67be9eb9de72465a071949e84a3cdb8fab5a3
- Affected versionversion=049584807f1d797fc3078b68035450a9769eb5c3 <f4feb1e20058e407cb00f45aff47f5b7e19a6bbf
- Affected versionversion=32b0aaba5dbc85816898167d9b5d45a22eae82e9
- Affected versionversion=5.10.223 <5.11
- Affected versionversion=5.15.164 <5.16
- Affected versionversion=5.4.281 <5.5
- Affected versionversion=589382f50b4a5d90d16d8bc9dcbc0e927a3e39b2
- Affected versionversion=6100e0237204890269e3f934acfc50d35fd6f319
- Affected versionversion=6.10.2 <6.11
- Affected versionversion=6.11
- Affected versionversion=6.1.102 <6.2
- Affected versionversion=6.6.43 <6.7
- Affected versionversion=6.9.12 <6.10
- Affected versionversion=8418f55302fa1d2eeb73e16e345167e545c598a5
- Affected versionversion=a9d1c27e2ee3b0ea5d40c105d6e728fc114470bb
- Affected versionversion=ad6b3f622ccfb4bfedfa53b6ebd91c3d1d04f146
- Affected versionversion=d5ad89b7d01ed4e66fd04734fc63d6e78536692a
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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