# CVE-2024-26953: net: esp: fix bad handling of pages from page_pool

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel's ESP handling can cause a system crash when processing specific network traffic.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 May 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-40509, BELL-CVE-2024-26953, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26953, GHSA-3rw8-47pg-9h95, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2024-26953, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2024-26953, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26953

## What is CVE-2024-26953?

CVE-2024-26953 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: esp: fix bad handling of pages from page_pool

When the skb is reorganized during esp_output (!esp->inline), the pages
coming from the original skb fragments are supposed to be released back
to the system through put_page. But if the skb fragment pages are
originating from a page_pool, calling put_page on them will trigger a
page_pool leak which will eventually result in a crash.

This leak can be easily observed when using CONFIG_DEBUG_VM and doing
ipsec + gre (non offloaded) forwarding:

  BUG: Bad page state in process ksoftirqd/16  pfn:1451b6
  page:00000000de2b8d32 refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x1451b6000 pfn:0x1451b6
  flags: 0x200000000000000(node=0|zone=2)
  page_type: 0xffffffff()
  raw: 0200000000000000 dead000000000040 ffff88810d23c000 0000000000000000
  raw: 00000001451b6000 0000000000000001 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000
  page dumped because: page_pool leak
  Modules linked in: ip_gre gre mlx5_ib mlx5_core xt_conntrack xt_MASQUERADE nf_conntrack_netlink nfnetlink iptable_nat nf_nat xt_addrtype br_netfilter rpcrdma rdma_ucm ib_iser libiscsi scsi_transport_iscsi ib_umad rdma_cm ib_ipoib iw_cm ib_cm ib_uverbs ib_core overlay zram zsmalloc fuse [last unloaded: mlx5_core]
  CPU: 16 PID: 96 Comm: ksoftirqd/16 Not tainted 6.8.0-rc4+ #22
  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   dump_stack_lvl+0x36/0x50
   bad_page+0x70/0xf0
   free_unref_page_prepare+0x27a/0x460
   free_unref_page+0x38/0x120
   esp_ssg_unref.isra.0+0x15f/0x200
   esp_output_tail+0x66d/0x780
   esp_xmit+0x2c5/0x360
   validate_xmit_xfrm+0x313/0x370
   ? validate_xmit_skb+0x1d/0x330
   validate_xmit_skb_list+0x4c/0x70
   sch_direct_xmit+0x23e/0x350
   __dev_queue_xmit+0x337/0xba0
   ? nf_hook_slow+0x3f/0xd0
   ip_finish_output2+0x25e/0x580
   iptunnel_xmit+0x19b/0x240
   ip_tunnel_xmit+0x5fb/0xb60
   ipgre_xmit+0x14d/0x280 [ip_gre]
   dev_hard_start_xmit+0xc3/0x1c0
   __dev_queue_xmit+0x208/0xba0
   ? nf_hook_slow+0x3f/0xd0
   ip_finish_output2+0x1ca/0x580
   ip_sublist_rcv_finish+0x32/0x40
   ip_sublist_rcv+0x1b2/0x1f0
   ? ip_rcv_finish_core.constprop.0+0x460/0x460
   ip_list_rcv+0x103/0x130
   __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x181/0x1e0
   netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x1b3/0x2c0
   napi_gro_receive+0xc8/0x200
   gro_cell_poll+0x52/0x90
   __napi_poll+0x25/0x1a0
   net_rx_action+0x28e/0x300
   __do_softirq+0xc3/0x276
   ? sort_range+0x20/0x20
   run_ksoftirqd+0x1e/0x30
   smpboot_thread_fn+0xa6/0x130
   kthread+0xcd/0x100
   ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20
   ret_from_fork+0x31/0x50
   ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20
   ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20
   </TASK>

The suggested fix is to introduce a new wrapper (skb_page_unref) that
covers page refcounting for page_pool pages as well.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26953?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26953?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26953 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26953 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-26953 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26953 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26953 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26953/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26953/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26953
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26953
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26953

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26953/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.