CVE-2026-99077 (CVSS 7.4)

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv4: udp: Create exceptions before socket matching Currently, when ICMP Fragmentation Needed and Redirect Message packets are locally delivered and quote a UDP packet, a FIB nexthop exception (FNHE) is only created if the kernel can match the UDP packet to an existing socket. This behavior allows off-path attackers to conduct a side-channel attack on the FNHE cache in order to discover the ephemeral port used by a connected UDP socket. Commit 6457378fe796 ("ipv4: use siphash instead of Jenkins in fnhe_hashfun()") and commit 67d6d681e15b ("ipv4: make exception cache less predictible") tried to mitigate such attacks by making it harder for attackers to discover hash collisions in the FNHE cache and by randomizing the number of exceptions a hash bucket can hold, respectively. Unfortunately, both of the mitigations can be bypassed. Instead, mitigate such attacks by always creating a FNHE, even before trying to find a matching socket. Do that by calling ipv4_update_pmtu() and ipv4_redirect(), the helpers used when the quoted packet did not originate from a socket. This means that guesses (right or wrong) from an off-path attacker will always result in a FNHE being created or updated in the cache that the attacker can observe. Pass an oif of 0, in a similar fashion to icmp_err(). This is also the oif used by the socket path for sockets that are not bound to a device. Note that this does not allow attackers to create FNHEs that they could not create before, as both helpers can already be reached with little to no validation. For example, by sending an ICMP error that quotes an ICMP Echo Reply or one that quotes a UDP source port that matches a wildcard socket. Also note that in the good case (matched socket) the above scheme comes at the cost of an extra route lookup, as the no socket helpers perform their own lookup before the one performed by ipv4_sk_update_pmtu() / ipv4_sk_redirect(). When the two resolve to different nexthops, it also results in two exceptions being created for the same destination IP. One in the FNHE cache of the nexthop resolved by the no socket helpers and another in the FNHE cache of the nexthop used by the socket.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.4

HIGH

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

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0043

Probability of exploitation

0.38%

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/4c3499f79f8c7e8561266bcc220a18538cec0458 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/be4fd05398f2b5e42029be70ee875fc749b8ce3a https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ecd7ead4bf05e221e90f18a29aec570a50fd1592

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-99077? +

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv4: udp: Create exceptions before socket matching Currently, when ICMP Fragmentation Needed and Redirect Message packets are locally delivered and quote a UDP packet, a FIB nexthop exception (FNHE) is only created if the kernel can match the UDP packet to an existing socket. This behavior allows off-path attackers to conduct a side-channel attack on the FNHE cache in order to discover the ephemeral port used by a connected UDP socket. Commit 6457378fe796 ("ipv4: use siphash instead of Jenkins in fnhe_hashfun()") and commit 67d6d681e15b ("ipv4: make exception cache less predictible") tried to mitigate such attacks by making it harder for attackers to discover hash collisions in the FNHE cache and by randomizing the number of exceptions a hash bucket can hold, respectively. Unfortunately, both of the mitigations can be bypassed. Instead, mitigate such attacks by always creating a FNHE, even before trying to find a matching socket. Do that by calling ipv4_update_pmtu() and ipv4_redirect(), the helpers used when the quoted packet did not originate from a socket. This means that guesses (right or wrong) from an off-path attacker will always result in a FNHE being created or updated in the cache that the attacker can observe. Pass an oif of 0, in a similar fashion to icmp_err(). This is also the oif used by the socket path for sockets that are not bound to a device. Note that this does not allow attackers to create FNHEs that they could not create before, as both helpers can already be reached with little to no validation. For example, by sending an ICMP error that quotes an ICMP Echo Reply or one that quotes a UDP source port that matches a wildcard socket. Also note that in the good case (matched socket) the above scheme comes at the cost of an extra route lookup, as the no socket helpers perform their own lookup before the one performed by ipv4_sk_update_pmtu() / ipv4_sk_redirect(). When the two resolve to different nexthops, it also results in two exceptions being created for the same destination IP. One in the FNHE cache of the nexthop resolved by the no socket helpers and another in the FNHE cache of the nexthop used by the socket. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.4 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2026-99077? +

CVE-2026-99077 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.4 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching. The EPSS score is 0.0043, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-99077? +

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-2026-99077