DMA faults via unmapped receive buffers
Published Oct 18, 2026 · Updated Oct 18, 2026
DMA mapping errors in Linux stmmac allow attackers to trigger SMMU translation faults via oversized received Ethernet frames. The stmmac_init_rx_buffers() and stmmac_rx_refill() paths leave the secondary buffer unbacked outside split-header mode, so DMA writes beyond the first buffer target an unmapped address. An accepted frame must exceed dma_buf_sz on affected hardware; the documented consequence on IOMMU-based platforms is a translation fault, not a demonstrated system crash.
Summary
What happened
DMA mapping errors in Linux stmmac allow attackers to trigger SMMU translation faults via oversized received Ethernet frames. The stmmac_init_rx_buffers() and stmmac_rx_refill() paths leave the secondary buffer unbacked outside split-header mode, so DMA writes beyond the first buffer target an unmapped address. An accepted frame must exceed dma_buf_sz on affected hardware; the documented consequence on IOMMU-based platforms is a translation fault, not a demonstrated system crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-98803
- Published
- Oct 18, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 18, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- adjacent
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 18, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 18, 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=5.4.262 <5.5
- Affected versionversion=5.5
- Affected versionversion=88ebe2cf7f3fc9da95e0f06483fd58da3e67e675 <358d5ac5a5d57ce21c3814c4e3e8f3fbcb7304b4
- Affected versionversion=88ebe2cf7f3fc9da95e0f06483fd58da3e67e675 <88095728511e0df9c89528944f5a1762ad298983
- Affected versionversion=88ebe2cf7f3fc9da95e0f06483fd58da3e67e675 <a7cff44543f66f3a19151060cb549691d191d44c
- Affected versionversion=c4b712d1a814a0535091d99e6cf04d69ac42ef7b
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
No sourced classifications are available.
Public exploit references
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Technologies
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