CVE-2026-31649 net: stmmac: fix integer underflow in chain mode

What is CVE-2026-31649?

CVE-2026-31649 is a critical vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 2026. 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: stmmac: fix integer underflow in chain mode

The jumbo_frm() chain-mode implementation unconditionally computes

len = nopaged_len - bmax;

where nopaged_len = skb_headlen(skb) (linear bytes only) and bmax is BUF_SIZE_8KiB or BUF_SIZE_2KiB. However, the caller stmmac_xmit() decides to invoke jumbo_frm() based on skb->len (total length including page fragments):

is_jumbo = stmmac_is_jumbo_frm(priv, skb->len, enh_desc);

When a packet has a small linear portion (nopaged_len <= bmax) but a large total length due to page fragments (skb->len > bmax), the subtraction wraps as an unsigned integer, producing a huge len value (~0xFFFFxxxx). This causes the while (len != 0) loop to execute hundreds of thousands of iterations, passing skb->data + bmax * i pointers far beyond the skb buffer to dma_map_single(). On IOMMU-less SoCs (the typical deployment for stmmac), this maps arbitrary kernel memory to the DMA engine, constituting a kernel memory disclosure and potential memory corruption from hardware.

Fix this by introducing a buf_len local variable clamped to min(nopaged_len, bmax). Computing len = nopaged_len - buf_len is then always safe: it is zero when the linear portion fits within a single descriptor, causing the while (len != 0) loop to be skipped naturally, and the fragment loop in stmmac_xmit() handles page fragments afterward.

Weakness: CWE-190

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31649?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-31649?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-31649 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31649 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-83843, BELL-CVE-2026-31649, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31649, GHSA-jv6m-v86w-343p, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-31649, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-31649 and 4 more.