# CVE-2026-43234: team: avoid NETDEV_CHANGEMTU event when unregistering slave > A flaw in the Linux kernel team driver causes a reference count leak during slave unregistration, leading to a denial of service. - **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Any signed-in user - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 6 May 2026 - **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026 - **Also known as:** AZL-85818, BELL-CVE-2026-43234, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43234, GHSA-fgqh-8xwq-c3jp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43234, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-43234, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-43234, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-43234, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-43234, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43234 ## What is CVE-2026-43234? CVE-2026-43234 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. ### Official description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: team: avoid NETDEV_CHANGEMTU event when unregistering slave syzbot is reporting unregister_netdevice: waiting for netdevsim0 to become free. Usage count = 3 ref_tracker: netdev@ffff88807dcf8618 has 1/2 users at __netdev_tracker_alloc include/linux/netdevice.h:4400 [inline] netdev_hold include/linux/netdevice.h:4429 [inline] inetdev_init+0x201/0x4e0 net/ipv4/devinet.c:286 inetdev_event+0x251/0x1610 net/ipv4/devinet.c:1600 notifier_call_chain+0x19d/0x3a0 kernel/notifier.c:85 call_netdevice_notifiers_mtu net/core/dev.c:2318 [inline] netif_set_mtu_ext+0x5aa/0x800 net/core/dev.c:9886 netif_set_mtu+0xd7/0x1b0 net/core/dev.c:9907 dev_set_mtu+0x126/0x260 net/core/dev_api.c:248 team_port_del+0xb07/0xcb0 drivers/net/team/team_core.c:1333 team_del_slave drivers/net/team/team_core.c:1936 [inline] team_device_event+0x207/0x5b0 drivers/net/team/team_core.c:2929 notifier_call_chain+0x19d/0x3a0 kernel/notifier.c:85 call_netdevice_notifiers_extack net/core/dev.c:2281 [inline] call_netdevice_notifiers net/core/dev.c:2295 [inline] __dev_change_net_namespace+0xcb7/0x2050 net/core/dev.c:12592 do_setlink+0x2ce/0x4590 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3060 rtnl_changelink net/core/rtnetlink.c:3776 [inline] __rtnl_newlink net/core/rtnetlink.c:3935 [inline] rtnl_newlink+0x15a9/0x1be0 net/core/rtnetlink.c:4072 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x7d5/0xbe0 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6958 netlink_rcv_skb+0x232/0x4b0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1318 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x80f/0x9b0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344 netlink_sendmsg+0x813/0xb40 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1894 problem. Ido Schimmel found steps to reproduce ip link add name team1 type team ip link add name dummy1 mtu 1499 master team1 type dummy ip netns add ns1 ip link set dev dummy1 netns ns1 ip -n ns1 link del dev dummy1 and also found that the same issue was fixed in the bond driver in commit f51048c3e07b ("bonding: avoid NETDEV_CHANGEMTU event when unregistering slave"). Let's do similar thing for the team driver, with commit ad7c7b2172c3 ("net: hold netdev instance lock during sysfs operations") and commit 303a8487a657 ("net: s/__dev_set_mtu/__netif_set_mtu/") also applied. ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43234? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2026-43234? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2026-43234 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43234 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-2026-43234 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-43234 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43234 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-2026-43234/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43234/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43234 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43234 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43234 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43234/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.