CVE-2026-53250: xsk: cache csum_start/csum_offset to fix TOCTOU in xsk_skb_metadata()

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-06-25 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-367

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xsk: cache csum_start/csum_offset to fix TOCTOU in xsk_skb_metadata() The TX metadata area resides in the UMEM buffer which is memory-mapped and concurrently writable by userspace. In xsk_skb_metadata(), csum_start and csum_offset are read from shared memory for bounds validation, then read again for skb assignment. A malicious userspace application can race to overwrite these values between the two reads, bypassing the bounds check and causing out-of-bounds memory access during checksum computation in the transmit path. Fix this by reading csum_start and csum_offset into local variables once, then using the local copies for both validation and assignment. Note that other metadata fields (flags, launch_time) and the cached csum fields may be mutually inconsistent due to concurrent userspace writes, but this is benign: the only security-critical invariant is that each field's validated value is the same one used, which local caching guarantees.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.8 before 6.18.36; from 6.19 before 7.0.13; 7.1-rc1, 7.1-rc2, 7.1-rc3, 7.1-rc4, 7.1-rc5, 7.1-rc6 — fixed in 6.18.36, 7.0.13

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.18.36, 7.0.13. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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