CVE-2026-53227 | net: openvswitch: fix possible kfree_skb of ERR_PTR

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix possible kfree_skb of ERR_PTR After the patch in the "Fixes" tag, the allocation of the "reply" skb can happen either before or after locking the ovs_mutex. However, error cleanups still follow the classical reversed order, assuming "reply" is allocated before locking: it is freed after unlocking. If "reply" allocation happens after locking the mutex and it fails, "reply" is left with an ERR_PTR, and execution jumps to the correspondent cleanup stage which will try to free an invalid pointer. Fix this by setting the pointer to NULL after having saved its error value.

Published: 2026-06-25 Last update: 2026-07-02 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-53227 is rated Low Risk (23.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.14%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-53227

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 2026-07-03 0.20% 0.14% -0.06%
2 2026-06-25 0.20%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-53227

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-53227

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-53227

GHSA-mp79-8qq6-qp9g · Severity: medium — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: openvswitch: fix...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-53227

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-53227 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-2026-53227
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53227
suse medium CVE-2026-53227 severity moderate: SUSE including 4 source package names (kernel-default, kernel-default-base, kernel-default-devel, kernel-source), 4 product×package rows across 1 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS EXTREME CORE): Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53227/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-53227 medium priority: Ubuntu including 162 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1458 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1051, ignored 175, needed 143, released 88, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-53227

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-53227

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 3.16, < 5.10.259 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.210 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.176 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.143 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.94 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.36 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-53227

cvelogic Threat Intelligence