In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: macvlan: fix error recovery in macvlan_common_newlink() valis provided a nice repro to crash the kernel: ip link add p1 type veth peer p2 ip link set address 00:00:00:00:00:20 dev p1 ip link set up dev p1 ip link set up dev p2 ip link add mv0 link p2 type macvlan mode source ip link add invalid% link p2 type macvlan mode source macaddr add 00:00:00:00:00:20 ping -c1 -I p1 1.2.3.4 He also gave a very detailed analysis: <quote valis> The issue is triggered when a new macvlan link is created with MACVLAN_MODE_SOURCE mode and MACVLAN_MACADDR_ADD (or MACVLAN_MACADDR_SET) parameter, lower device already has a macvlan port and register_netdevice() called from macvlan_common_newlink() fails (e.g. because of the invalid link name). In this case macvlan_hash_add_source is called from macvlan_change_sources() / macvlan_common_newlink(): This adds a reference to vlan to the port's vlan_source_hash using macvlan_source_entry. vlan is a pointer to the priv data of the link that is being created. When register_netdevice() fails, the error is returned from macvlan_newlink() to rtnl_newlink_create(): if (ops->newlink) err = ops->newlink(dev, ¶ms, extack); else err = register_netdevice(dev); if (err < 0) { free_netdev(dev); goto out; } and free_netdev() is called, causing a kvfree() on the struct net_device that is still referenced in the source entry attached to the lower device's macvlan port. Now all packets sent on the macvlan port with a matching source mac address will trigger a use-after-free in macvlan_forward_source(). </quote valis> With all that, my fix is to make sure we call macvlan_flush_sources() regardless of @create value whenever "goto destroy_macvlan_port;" path is taken. Many thanks to valis for following up on this issue.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-23209 is rated Low Risk (32/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.12%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-06-15 | 0.02% | 0.12% | +0.10% |
| 2 | 2026-02-15 | — | 0.02% | — |
Full EPSS history (2 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.8 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
1.8 | 5.9 | 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 |
| 7.8 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
1.8 | 5.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2026-23209 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 6. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-23209 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23209 |
suse
|
high | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23209/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2026-23209 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1413 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1018, ignored 170, released 147, pending 50, not-affected 18, needed 10. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-23209 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 4.9.1, < 5.10.250 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.11, < 5.15.200 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.16, < 6.1.163 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.2, < 6.6.124 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.7, < 6.12.70 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.13, < 6.18.10 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 4.9 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.9:-:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 4.9 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.9:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 4.9 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.9:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 4.9 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:4.9:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.19 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:* |