GHSA-V39P-WRRC-5J75
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-07-19 18:31 – Updated: 2026-07-19 18:31In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: act_mirred: Fix blockcast recursion bypass leading to stack overflow
tcf_mirred_act() checks sched_mirred_nest against MIRRED_NEST_LIMIT (4) to prevent deep recursion. However, when the action uses blockcast (tcfm_blockid != 0), the function returns at the tcf_blockcast() call BEFORE reaching the counter increment. As a result, the recursion counter never advances and the limit check is entirely bypassed.
When two devices share a TC egress block with a mirred blockcast rule, a packet egressing on device A is mirrored to device B via blockcast; device B's egress TC re-enters tcf_mirred_act() via blockcast and mirrors back to A, creating an unbounded recursion loop:
tcf_mirred_act -> tcf_blockcast -> tcf_mirred_to_dev -> dev_queue_xmit -> sch_handle_egress -> tcf_classify -> tcf_mirred_act -> (repeat)
This recursion continues until the kernel stack overflows.
The bug is reachable from an unprivileged user via unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_NEWNET): user namespaces grant CAP_NET_ADMIN in the new network namespace, which is sufficient to create dummy devices, attach clsact qdiscs with shared blocks, and install mirred blockcast filters.
BUG: TASK stack guard page was hit at ffffc90000b7fff8 Oops: stack guard page: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 2 UID: 1000 PID: 169 Comm: poc Not tainted 7.0.0-rc7-next-20260410 RIP: 0010:xas_find+0x17/0x480 Call Trace: xa_find+0x17b/0x1d0 tcf_mirred_act+0x640/0x1060 tcf_action_exec+0x400/0x530 basic_classify+0x128/0x1d0 tcf_classify+0xd83/0x1150 tc_run+0x328/0x620 __dev_queue_xmit+0x797/0x3100 tcf_mirred_to_dev+0x7b1/0xf70 tcf_mirred_act+0x68a/0x1060 [repeating ~30+ times until stack overflow] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt
Fix this by incrementing sched_mirred_nest before calling tcf_blockcast() and decrementing it on return, mirroring the non-blockcast path. This ensures subsequent recursive entries see the updated counter and are correctly limited by MIRRED_NEST_LIMIT.
{
"affected": [],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-63981"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [],
"github_reviewed": false,
"github_reviewed_at": null,
"nvd_published_at": "2026-07-19T16:17:17Z",
"severity": null
},
"details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nnet/sched: act_mirred: Fix blockcast recursion bypass leading to stack overflow\n\ntcf_mirred_act() checks sched_mirred_nest against MIRRED_NEST_LIMIT (4)\nto prevent deep recursion. However, when the action uses blockcast\n(tcfm_blockid != 0), the function returns at the tcf_blockcast() call\nBEFORE reaching the counter increment. As a result, the recursion\ncounter never advances and the limit check is entirely bypassed.\n\nWhen two devices share a TC egress block with a mirred blockcast rule,\na packet egressing on device A is mirrored to device B via blockcast;\ndevice B\u0027s egress TC re-enters tcf_mirred_act() via blockcast and\nmirrors back to A, creating an unbounded recursion loop:\n\n tcf_mirred_act -\u003e tcf_blockcast -\u003e tcf_mirred_to_dev -\u003e dev_queue_xmit\n -\u003e sch_handle_egress -\u003e tcf_classify -\u003e tcf_mirred_act -\u003e (repeat)\n\nThis recursion continues until the kernel stack overflows.\n\nThe bug is reachable from an unprivileged user via\nunshare(CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_NEWNET): user namespaces grant\nCAP_NET_ADMIN in the new network namespace, which is sufficient to\ncreate dummy devices, attach clsact qdiscs with shared blocks, and\ninstall mirred blockcast filters.\n\n BUG: TASK stack guard page was hit at ffffc90000b7fff8\n Oops: stack guard page: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI\n CPU: 2 UID: 1000 PID: 169 Comm: poc Not tainted 7.0.0-rc7-next-20260410\n RIP: 0010:xas_find+0x17/0x480\n Call Trace:\n xa_find+0x17b/0x1d0\n tcf_mirred_act+0x640/0x1060\n tcf_action_exec+0x400/0x530\n basic_classify+0x128/0x1d0\n tcf_classify+0xd83/0x1150\n tc_run+0x328/0x620\n __dev_queue_xmit+0x797/0x3100\n tcf_mirred_to_dev+0x7b1/0xf70\n tcf_mirred_act+0x68a/0x1060\n [repeating ~30+ times until stack overflow]\n Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt\n\nFix this by incrementing sched_mirred_nest before calling\ntcf_blockcast() and decrementing it on return, mirroring the\nnon-blockcast path. This ensures subsequent recursive entries see the\nupdated counter and are correctly limited by MIRRED_NEST_LIMIT.",
"id": "GHSA-v39p-wrrc-5j75",
"modified": "2026-07-19T18:31:48Z",
"published": "2026-07-19T18:31:48Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-63981"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25fc9352590f5ef21ebf290432bd768b336693bc"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/34457de389fb64a01fdcc71177dfebe65fd2d362"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a005fa5d7502eefec7ee6e1c01adadc06de2f9ad"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": []
}
Sightings
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