CVE-2026-64531 (CVSS 7.8)

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: reject oversized nested action attrs Open vSwitch stores generated flow actions as nlattrs, whose nla_len field is u16. Commit a1e64addf3ff ("net: openvswitch: remove misbehaving actions length check") allowed the total sw_flow_actions stream to grow beyond 64 KiB, which is valid, but also removed the last guard preventing a generated nested action attribute from exceeding U16_MAX. An oversized generated container can thus be closed with a truncated nla_len. A later dump or teardown then walks a structurally different stream than the one that was validated. In particular, an oversized nested CLONE/CT action may cause subsequent bytes in the generated stream to be interpreted as independent actions. Keep the larger total-action-stream behavior, but make nested action close reject generated containers that do not fit in nla_len, and return the error through all callers. For recursive SAMPLE, CLONE, DEC_TTL, and CHECK_PKT_LEN builders, trim resource-owning action-list tails in reverse construction order before discarding failed wrappers, so resources copied into the rejected tails are released before the wrappers are removed. Most failed outer wrappers are discarded by truncating actions_len after child resources have been released. CHECK_PKT_LEN also trims its parent after branch resources are gone. SET/TUNNEL close failures unwind their known tun_dst ownership directly, and SET_TO_MASKED has no external ownership and truncates on close failure.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.8

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0038

Probability of exploitation

0.31%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

References

Other References

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b41cbe05b184f8861712f0806cc0c4f5d8c6dfe https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f1f755366687d051174739fb99f7d560202f60b https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab855641241387db062a5e41d9ad6b8561542572 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c66bd2626c2764f23764ff0f8277f44a9cfe8349 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d573250d228401f707f4dbc09d11227a6215ee5f https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dbd14f736be02cfe73049bd801af89becd1a0749 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f1efff8858403191361a01269c6fe8dd7f55a385 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/07/28/8 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/07/31/17 http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/01/1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-64531? +

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: reject oversized nested action attrs Open vSwitch stores generated flow actions as nlattrs, whose nla_len field is u16. Commit a1e64addf3ff ("net: openvswitch: remove misbehaving actions length check") allowed the total sw_flow_actions stream to grow beyond 64 KiB, which is valid, but also removed the last guard preventing a generated nested action attribute from exceeding U16_MAX. An oversized generated container can thus be closed with a truncated nla_len. A later dump or teardown then walks a structurally different stream than the one that was validated. In particular, an oversized nested CLONE/CT action may cause subsequent bytes in the generated stream to be interpreted as independent actions. Keep the larger total-action-stream behavior, but make nested action close reject generated containers that do not fit in nla_len, and return the error through all callers. For recursive SAMPLE, CLONE, DEC_TTL, and CHECK_PKT_LEN builders, trim resource-owning action-list tails in reverse construction order before discarding failed wrappers, so resources copied into the rejected tails are released before the wrappers are removed. Most failed outer wrappers are discarded by truncating actions_len after child resources have been released. CHECK_PKT_LEN also trims its parent after branch resources are gone. SET/TUNNEL close failures unwind their known tun_dst ownership directly, and SET_TO_MASKED has no external ownership and truncates on close failure. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-64531? +

CVE-2026-64531 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0038, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-64531? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

CVE-2026-64531