CVE-2026-43503
net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
Vexday Risk Score
43Attention
SSVC decision (CISA)
Attend
PoC available → attend closely
Exploit maturity
Proof of concept
Popular PoC on GitHub (24 stars) — exploitation code widely available.
CVSS 8.8EPSS 0.1%KEV nãoPoC públicaNuclei —Metasploit —Patch referenciado
Lifecycle
23 May 2026Published on NVD
25 Jun 2026Public PoC
Weaponization speed
33 daysto first PoC
Recommendation: Plan a near-term fix — a public PoC already exists.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: skbuff: propagate shared-frag marker through frag-transfer helpers
Two frag-transfer helpers (__pskb_copy_fclone() and skb_shift()) fail
to propagate the SKBFL_SHARED_FRAG bit in skb_shinfo()->flags when
moving frags from source to destination. __pskb_copy_fclone() defers
the rest of the shinfo metadata to skb_copy_header() after copying
frag descriptors, but that helper only carries over gso_{size,segs,
type} and never touches skb_shinfo()->flags; skb_shift() moves frag
descriptors directly and leaves flags untouched. As a result, the
destination skb keeps a reference to the same externally-owned or
page-cache-backed pages while reporting skb_has_shared_frag() as
false.
The mismatch is harmful in any in-place writer that uses
skb_has_shared_frag() to decide whether shared pages must be detoured
through skb_cow_data(). ESP input is one such writer (esp4.c,
esp6.c), and a single nft 'dup to <local>' rule -- or any other
nf_dup_ipv4() / xt_TEE caller -- is enough to land a pskb_copy()'d
skb in esp_input() with the marker stripped, letting an unprivileged
user write into the page cache of a root-owned read-only file via
authencesn-ESN stray writes.
Set SKBFL_SHARED_FRAG on the destination whenever frag descriptors
were actually moved from the source. skb_copy() and skb_copy_expand()
share skb_copy_header() too but linearize all paged data into freshly
allocated head storage and emerge with nr_frags == 0, so
skb_has_shared_frag() returns false on its own; they need no change.
The same omission exists in skb_gro_receive() and skb_gro_receive_list().
The former moves the incoming skb's frag descriptors into the
accumulator's last sub-skb via two paths (a direct frag-move loop and
the head_frag + memcpy path); the latter chains the incoming skb whole
onto p's frag_list. Downstream skb_segment() reads only
skb_shinfo(p)->flags, and skb_segment_list() reuses each sub-skb's
shinfo as the nskb -- both p and lp must carry the marker.
The same omission also exists in tcp_clone_payload(), which builds an
MTU probe skb by moving frag descriptors from skbs on sk_write_queue
into a freshly allocated nskb. The helper falls into the same family
and warrants the same fix for consistency; no TCP TX-side in-place
writer is currently known to reach a user page through this gap, but
a future consumer depending on the marker would regress silently.
The same omission exists in skb_segment(): the per-iteration flag
merge takes only head_skb's flag, and the inner switch that rebinds
frag_skb to list_skb on head_skb-frags exhaustion does not fold the
new frag_skb's flag into nskb. Fold frag_skb's flag at both sites
so segments drawing frags from frag_list members carry the marker.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
Linux · Linuxpublic PoCs found — 9
githubgithub.com/0xBlackash/CVE-2026-43503★ 24githubgithub.com/entra1337/DirtyClone★ 21githubgithub.com/mooder1/dirtyclone-CVE-2026-43503★ 15githubgithub.com/aexdyhaxor/CVE-2026-43503-DirtyClone★ 4githubgithub.com/douglasmun/pagecache-lpe-containment-kit★ 2githubgithub.com/gl1tch0x1/DirtyClone★ 2githubgithub.com/lieehrdiansyah12/CVE-2026-43503★ 1githubgithub.com/sec0x/CVE-2026-43503★ 0githubgithub.com/SecureWithUmer/CVE-2026-43503★ 0⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.
References
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19521https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19540https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19568https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19569https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19664https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19666https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19705https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19711https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:19875https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20051https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20054https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20087