How severe is CVE-2026-31429?

CVE-2026-31429 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.

Is CVE-2026-31429 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (17th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2026-31429?

CVE-2026-31429 primarily affects Linux Linux Kernel. In total, 8 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.

How do I fix CVE-2026-31429?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.

Does CVE-2026-31429 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?

Yes. CVE-2026-31429 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-23816.

When was CVE-2026-31429 published?

CVE-2026-31429 was published on 2026-04-20 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2026-31429

CVE-2026-31429 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel with a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-401.

Key facts

Severity: Medium (CVSS 3.x base score 5.5)
EPSS exploit prediction: 0% (17th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
EU (EUVD) id: EUVD-2026-23816
Weakness: CWE-401
Affected product: Linux Linux Kernel
Published: 2026-04-20
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: skb: fix cross-cache free of KFENCE-allocated skb head SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE is intentionally set to a non-power-of-2 value (e.g. 704 on x86_64) to avoid collisions with generic kmalloc bucket sizes. This ensures that skb_kfree_head() can reliably use skb_end_offset to distinguish skb heads allocated from skb_small_head_cache vs. generic kmalloc caches. However, when KFENCE is enabled, kfence_ksize() returns the exact requested allocation size instead of the slab bucket size. If a caller (e.g. bpf_test_init) allocates skb head data via kzalloc() and the requested size happens to equal SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE, then slab_build_skb() -> ksize() returns that exact value. After subtracting skb_shared_info overhead, skb_end_offset ends up matching SKB_SMALL_HEAD_HEADROOM, causing skb_kfree_head() to incorrectly free the object to skb_small_head_cache instead of back to the original kmalloc cache, resulting in a slab cross-cache free: kmem_cache_free(skbuff_small_head): Wrong slab cache. Expected skbuff_small_head but got kmalloc-1k Fix this by always calling kfree(head) in skb_kfree_head(). This keeps the free path generic and avoids allocator-specific misclassification for KFENCE objects.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-31429?: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: skb: fix cross-cache free of KFENCE-allocated skb head SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE is intentionally set to a non-power-of-2 value (e.g. 704 on x86_64) to avoid collisions with generic kmalloc bucket sizes. This ensures that skb_kfree_head() can reliably use skb_end_offset to distinguish skb heads allocated from skb_small_head_cache vs. generic kmalloc caches. However, when KFENCE is enabled, kfence_ksize() returns the exact requested allocation size instead of the slab bucket size. If a caller (e.g. bpf_test_init) allocates skb head data via kzalloc() and the requested size happens to equal SKB_SMALL_HEAD_CACHE_SIZE, then slab_build_skb() -> ksize() returns that exact value. After subtracting skb_shared_info overhead, skb_end_offset ends up matching SKB_SMALL_HEAD_HEADROOM, causing skb_kfree_head() to incorrectly free the object to skb_small_head_cache instead of back to the original kmalloc cache, resulting in a slab cross-cache free: kmem_cache_free(skbuff_small_head): Wrong slab cache. Expected skbuff_small_head but got kmalloc-1k Fix this by always calling kfree(head) in skb_kfree_head(). This keeps the free path generic and avoids allocator-specific misclassification for KFENCE objects.
How severe is CVE-2026-31429?: CVE-2026-31429 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2026-31429 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (17th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2026-31429?: CVE-2026-31429 primarily affects Linux Linux Kernel. In total, 8 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2026-31429?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2026-31429 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?: Yes. CVE-2026-31429 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-23816.
When was CVE-2026-31429 published?: CVE-2026-31429 was published on 2026-04-20 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (8)

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*

More vulnerabilities in Linux Linux Kernel

CVE-2023-2163 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Incorrect verifier pruning in BPF in Linux Kernel >=5.4 leads to unsafe code paths being incorrectly marked as safe,…
CVE-2015-8104 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel through 4.2.6, and Xen 4.3.x through 4.6.x, allows guest OS users to cause a…
CVE-2015-1421 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Use-after-free vulnerability in the sctp_assoc_update function in net/sctp/associola.c in the Linux kernel before…
CVE-2014-2523 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_proto_dccp.c in the Linux kernel through 3.13.6 uses a DCCP header pointer incorrectly,…
CVE-2010-2495 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): The pppol2tp_xmit function in drivers/net/pppol2tp.c in the L2TP implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does…
CVE-2010-2521 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Multiple buffer overflows in fs/nfsd/nfs4xdr.c in the XDR implementation in the NFS server in the Linux kernel before…

All CVEs affecting Linux Linux Kernel →

Other CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime) vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-46289 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lib/scatterlist: fix length calculations in…
CVE-2022-0742 — Critical (CVSS 9.1): Memory leak in icmp6 implementation in Linux Kernel 5.13+ allows a remote attacker to DoS a host by making it go…
CVE-2024-25450 — High (CVSS 8.8): imlib2 v1.9.1 was discovered to mishandle memory allocation in the function init_imlib_fonts().
CVE-2023-33718 — High (CVSS 8.8): mp4v2 v2.1.3 was discovered to contain a memory leak via MP4File::ReadString() at mp4file_io.cpp
CVE-2021-40633 — High (CVSS 8.8): A memory leak (out-of-memory) in gif2rgb in util/gif2rgb.c in giflib 5.1.4 allows remote attackers trigger an out of…
CVE-2021-3492 — High (CVSS 8.8): Shiftfs, an out-of-tree stacking file system included in Ubuntu Linux kernels, did not properly handle faults occurring…

Browse all CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime) vulnerabilities →