CVE-2026-43186: linux kernel vulnerability
CVE-2026-43186: critical vulnerability affecting linux kernel. Check CVSS, KEV status, business impact and recommended administrator actions.
- CVSS
- 9.8 CRITICAL
- EPSS
- 57.88%
- Known exploited
- not in KEV
- Product
- linux kernel
What is known
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: ioam: fix heap buffer overflow in __ioam6_fill_trace_data() On the receive path, __ioam6_fill_trace_data() uses trace->nodelen to decide how much data to write for each node. It trusts this field as-is from the incoming packet, with no consistency check against trace->type (the 24-bit field that tells which data items are present). A crafted packet can set nodelen=0 while setting type bits 0-21, causing the function to write ~100 bytes past the allocated region (into skb_shared_info), which corrupts adjacent heap memory and leads to a kernel panic. Add a shared helper ioam6_trace_compute_nodelen() in ioam6.c to derive the expected nodelen from the type field, and use it: - in ioam6_iptunnel.c (send path, existing validation) to replace the open-coded computation; - in exthdrs.c (receive path, ipv6_hop_ioam) to drop packets whose nodelen is inconsistent with the type field, before any data is written. Per RFC 9197, bits 12-21 are each short (4-octet) fields, so they are included in IOAM6_MASK_SHORT_FIELDS (changed from 0xff100000 to 0xff1ffc00).
Business impact
Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-43186, a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.8) affecting linux kernel, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.
Recommended administrator action
Confirm whether linux kernel is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.