CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-31531

MediumCVSS 5.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, rtm_get_nexthop() used a fixed-size skb allocation (NLMSG_GOODSIZE) when querying a nexthop object via RTM_GETNEXTHOP, which is insufficient for large nexthop groups (e.g., 512 nexthops). This triggers a warning in net/ipv4/nexthop.c and can cause allocation issues. The fix allocates the size dynamically using nh_nlmsg_size() and nlmsg_new(), and adjusts nh_nlmsg_size_grp() to account for flags and NHA_FDB size.

Risk Assessment

May cause kernel warnings, failures when querying large nexthop groups, and potential system instability during network operations. It affects routing management reliability in environments with large ECMP groups.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix for CVE-2026-31531. If immediate update is not possible, avoid querying very large nexthop groups via RTM_GETNEXTHOP until the patch is applied.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv4: nexthop: allocate skb dynamically in rtm_get_nexthop() When querying a nexthop object via RTM_GETNEXTHOP, the kernel currently allocates a fixed-size skb using NLMSG_GOODSIZE. While sufficient for single nexthops and small Equal-Cost Multi-Path groups, this fixed allocation fails for large nexthop groups like 512 nexthops. This results in the following warning splat: WARNING: net/ipv4/nexthop.c:3395 at rtm_get_nexthop+0x176/0x1c0, CPU#20: rep/4608 [...] RIP: 0010:rtm_get_nexthop (net/ipv4/nexthop.c:3395) [...] Call Trace: <TASK> rtnetlink_rcv_msg (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6989) netlink_rcv_skb (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550) netlink_unicast (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1319 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344) netlink_sendmsg (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1894) ____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:721 net/socket.c:736 net/socket.c:2585) ___sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2641) __sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2671) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130) </TASK> Fix this by allocating the size dynamically using nh_nlmsg_size() and using nlmsg_new(), this is consistent with nexthop_notify() behavior. In addition, adjust nh_nlmsg_size_grp() so it calculates the size needed based on flags passed. While at it, also add the size of NHA_FDB for nexthop group size calculation as it was missing too. This cannot be reproduced via iproute2 as the group size is currently limited and the command fails as follows: addattr_l ERROR: message exceeded bound of 1048

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS