TX ring corruption via descriptor undercount
Published Sep 25, 2026 · Updated Sep 25, 2026
Memory corruption in the stmmac TSO path in Linux 4.7 and later allows attackers to corrupt the TX descriptor ring with fragmented packets. stmmac_tso_xmit() undercounts required descriptors because stmmac_tso_allocator() maps each fragment separately, then writes beyond the available ring slots. Reachability requires stmmac TSO on supported Synopsys Ethernet hardware and a highly fragmented TSO packet; the published patch establishes TX-ring corruption but no crash or broader impact.
Summary
What happened
Memory corruption in the stmmac TSO path in Linux 4.7 and later allows attackers to corrupt the TX descriptor ring with fragmented packets. stmmac_tso_xmit() undercounts required descriptors because stmmac_tso_allocator() maps each fragment separately, then writes beyond the available ring slots. Reachability requires stmmac TSO on supported Synopsys Ethernet hardware and a highly fragmented TSO packet; the published patch establishes TX-ring corruption but no crash or broader impact.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-97953
- Published
- Sep 25, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 25, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- Unavailable
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 25, 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?
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- Affected versionversion=4.7
- Affected versionversion=f748be531d7012c456b97f66091d86b3675c5fef <5e38d732ec67a5b1f9a56e6c73add480c4b6030a
- Affected versionversion=f748be531d7012c456b97f66091d86b3675c5fef <65820fc743eae322f7f94f6a64d07861211d4b21
- Affected versionversion=f748be531d7012c456b97f66091d86b3675c5fef <c28175220f808c867d5618de8ecc6dbcc815c773
- Affected versionversion=f748be531d7012c456b97f66091d86b3675c5fef <ffa6d2481bc1c87f822ecd626561484e4ee24cef
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
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