CVE-2026-74550: net: do not send ICMP/NDISC Redirects when peer allocation fails

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-08-15 · updated 2026-10-16

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: do not send ICMP/NDISC Redirects when peer allocation fails When inet_getpeer_v4() or inet_getpeer_v6() fails to allocate a peer entry under memory pressure or tree size caps, redirect handlers previously fell back to sending un-rate-limited ICMP/NDISC Redirect messages. In IPv4, ip_rt_send_redirect() called icmp_send() directly when peer == NULL. In IPv6, ip6_forward() and ndisc_send_redirect() passed a NULL peer into inet_peer_xrlim_allow(), which returned true when peer == NULL. Because ICMP/NDISC Redirects are not part of the default global rate limit mask (sysctl_icmp_ratemask), sending redirects when peer == NULL creates an un-rate-limited ICMP packet storm. Fix this by failing closed in ip_rt_send_redirect(), ip6_forward(), and ndisc_send_redirect() when peer is NULL.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 2.6.39 — fixed in 7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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