CVE-2026-43186 | ipv6: ioam: fix heap buffer overflow in __ioam6_fill_trace_data()

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).

Published: 2026-05-06 Last update: 2026-05-11 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-43186 is rated Moderate Risk (55.7/100): CVSS Critical severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.64%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-43186

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 0.18% 0.64% +0.46%
2 2026-05-12 0.05% 0.18% +0.13%
3 2026-05-07 0.05%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-43186

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 5.9 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-43186

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-43186

GHSA-8x8h-4g2v-qpf2 · Severity: critical — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: ioam: fix heap buffer...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-43186

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2026-43186 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-43186
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43186
suse https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43186/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-43186 medium priority: Ubuntu including 161 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1449 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1048, ignored 169, needed 88, released 83, not-affected 55, needs-triage 5, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-43186

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-43186

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.15, < 5.15.202 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.165 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.128 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.75 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.16 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 6.19.6 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-43186

cvelogic Threat Intelligence