Malformed TCP transmission via truncated TSO header length
Published Oct 6, 2026 · Updated Oct 6, 2026
Incorrect packet transmission in the Linux stmmac driver allows local users to generate malformed TCP/IPv6 output through TSO. stmmac_tso_xmit() narrows a protocol-header length to eight bits even though stmmac_tso_valid_packet() accepts up to 1023 bytes, causing TSO descriptors to treat part of an oversized header as payload. Triggering requires stmmac hardware TSO and a locally created TCP/IPv6 socket with sufficiently long destination or hop-by-hop options; the documented consequence is incorrect packet segmentation, not a demonstrated host crash.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect packet transmission in the Linux stmmac driver allows local users to generate malformed TCP/IPv6 output through TSO. stmmac_tso_xmit() narrows a protocol-header length to eight bits even though stmmac_tso_valid_packet() accepts up to 1023 bytes, causing TSO descriptors to treat part of an oversized header as payload. Triggering requires stmmac hardware TSO and a locally created TCP/IPv6 socket with sufficiently long destination or hop-by-hop options; the documented consequence is incorrect packet segmentation, not a demonstrated host crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-98288
- Published
- Oct 6, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 6, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 6, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 6, 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=4.13
- Affected versionversion=9edfa7dab8112a012b349b7937f5444fdc21e8f9 <15989abd74f16f44bf953d056b95f1d2fda9b0cd
- Affected versionversion=9edfa7dab8112a012b349b7937f5444fdc21e8f9 <bcf6013c2b4d732c6e4bf4d0f6ae4a18d63d414b
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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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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