In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: act_gact, act_police: range check the fallback control action
tcf_action_check_ctrlact() range checks the primary control action:
if (!opcode)
ret = action > TC_ACT_VALUE_MAX ? -EINVAL : 0;
TC_ACT_VALUE_MAX is TC_ACT_TRAP, so kernel-internal verdicts above it
cannot be set that way. But act_gact and act_police each carry a second,
independent control action supplied by user space that never reaches that
helper - TCA_GACT_PROB.paction and TCA_POLICE_RESULT. Both only reject
TC_ACT_GOTO_CHAIN, so any other value is stored verbatim and returned
verbatim from the action.
In particular user space can store TC_ACT_CONSUMED, which is
TC_ACT_VALUE_MAX + 1 and is deliberately not part of the UAPI value
range. That verdict tells every caller the action took ownership of the
skb, so nobody frees it: sch_handle_ingress(), sch_handle_egress() and
tcf_qevent_handle() all deliberately skip the free for it. The result is
one leaked sk_buff plus its data buffer per packet traversing the filter,
unbounded, for all traffic on the chain including kernel-generated
packets.
Both are trivially deterministic. act_gact clamps tcfg_pval to >= 1, so
with pval = 1 gact_determ() returns the fallback for every packet.
act_police has no mandatory rate, so rate = 0 leaves tcfp_mtu = ~0 and
tcf_police_mtu_check() always passes.
TC_ACT_CONSUMED was added by commit 720f22fed81b ("net: sched: refactor
reinsert action"), after both goto-chain guards were written:
commit 9469f375ab09 ("net/sched: act_gact: disallow 'goto chain' on
fallback control action") and
commit c08f5ed5d625 ("net/sched: act_police: disallow 'goto chain' on
fallback control action"). Neither guard was widened when the new
verdict appeared.
Factor the existing range test out of tcf_action_check_ctrlact() as
tcf_action_valid() and apply it to both fallbacks. The helper cannot call
tcf_action_check_ctrlact() directly because that also allocates a
goto_chain, which is exactly what these two sites must not do.
Reproduced on v7.2-rc6: kmemleak reports one leaked 232-byte
skbuff_head_cache object plus its 704-byte data buffer per packet. With
this patch both configurations are rejected with -EINVAL and kmemleak
reports none.
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendors | Products |
|---|---|
| Linux |
|
No data.
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment is a feature of OpenCVE that uses AI to automatically link vendors and products to CVEs. Learn more on GitHub.
| Vendors | Products |
|---|---|
| Linux |
|
References
History
Sat, 22 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Weaknesses | CWE-20 CWE-399 CWE-401 |
Sat, 22 Aug 2026 15:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: act_gact, act_police: range check the fallback control action tcf_action_check_ctrlact() range checks the primary control action: if (!opcode) ret = action > TC_ACT_VALUE_MAX ? -EINVAL : 0; TC_ACT_VALUE_MAX is TC_ACT_TRAP, so kernel-internal verdicts above it cannot be set that way. But act_gact and act_police each carry a second, independent control action supplied by user space that never reaches that helper - TCA_GACT_PROB.paction and TCA_POLICE_RESULT. Both only reject TC_ACT_GOTO_CHAIN, so any other value is stored verbatim and returned verbatim from the action. In particular user space can store TC_ACT_CONSUMED, which is TC_ACT_VALUE_MAX + 1 and is deliberately not part of the UAPI value range. That verdict tells every caller the action took ownership of the skb, so nobody frees it: sch_handle_ingress(), sch_handle_egress() and tcf_qevent_handle() all deliberately skip the free for it. The result is one leaked sk_buff plus its data buffer per packet traversing the filter, unbounded, for all traffic on the chain including kernel-generated packets. Both are trivially deterministic. act_gact clamps tcfg_pval to >= 1, so with pval = 1 gact_determ() returns the fallback for every packet. act_police has no mandatory rate, so rate = 0 leaves tcfp_mtu = ~0 and tcf_police_mtu_check() always passes. TC_ACT_CONSUMED was added by commit 720f22fed81b ("net: sched: refactor reinsert action"), after both goto-chain guards were written: commit 9469f375ab09 ("net/sched: act_gact: disallow 'goto chain' on fallback control action") and commit c08f5ed5d625 ("net/sched: act_police: disallow 'goto chain' on fallback control action"). Neither guard was widened when the new verdict appeared. Factor the existing range test out of tcf_action_check_ctrlact() as tcf_action_valid() and apply it to both fallbacks. The helper cannot call tcf_action_check_ctrlact() directly because that also allocates a goto_chain, which is exactly what these two sites must not do. Reproduced on v7.2-rc6: kmemleak reports one leaked 232-byte skbuff_head_cache object plus its 704-byte data buffer per packet. With this patch both configurations are rejected with -EINVAL and kmemleak reports none. | |
| Title | net/sched: act_gact, act_police: range check the fallback control action | |
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| References |
|
|
MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: Linux
Published:
Updated: 2026-08-22T15:32:04.254Z
Reserved: 2026-08-15T05:44:03.921Z
Link: CVE-2026-74620
Vulnrichment
No data.
NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-08-22T16:16:34.753
Modified: 2026-08-22T16:16:34.753
Link: CVE-2026-74620
Redhat
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-08-22T18:15:03Z