# CVE-2026-68120: rtase: Workaround for TX hang caused by hardware packet parsing

> A Linux kernel driver flaw allows remote attackers to cause a transmission hang by sending malformed network packets, resulting in denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 10 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-68120, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68120, GHSA-h9m4-2rpx-jm2g, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68120

## What is CVE-2026-68120?

CVE-2026-68120 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 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:

rtase: Workaround for TX hang caused by hardware packet parsing

The hardware performs packet parsing before packet transmission.
Parsing incomplete IPv4, IPv6, TCP, or UDP headers may trigger a TX
hang because the hardware parser expects additional protocol header
data that is not present in the packet.

The hardware performs additional PTP parsing on UDP packets identified
by destination ports 319/320 at the expected UDP destination port
offset.

If such a packet has transport data smaller than RTASE_MIN_PAD_LEN,
the hardware parser expects additional packet data and may trigger a
TX hang.

To avoid these hardware issues, the driver applies the following
workarounds.

Drop malformed packets that may trigger this hardware issue before
transmission.

For IPv4 non-initial fragments, the hardware does not check the
fragment offset before parsing the expected transport header location.
As a result, these packets are still subject to transport header
parsing even though they do not contain a transport header. If the
transport data is shorter than the minimum transport header required
by the hardware parser, pad the transport data to the minimum
transport header length required by the hardware parser. Packets that
also match the hardware PTP parsing conditions continue to follow the
corresponding workaround.

For IPv6 fragmented packets, neither of the above hardware issues
occurs because the hardware only continues packet parsing when the
IPv6 Base Header Next Header field directly indicates UDP. Packets
carrying a Fragment Header do not continue through the subsequent
packet parsing stages.

For packets identified for hardware PTP parsing, pad the transport
data so it reaches RTASE_MIN_PAD_LEN before transmission.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68120?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-68120?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-68120 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68120 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-68120 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-68120 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 2026. 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-2026-68120 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-68120/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68120/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-68120
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-68120
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-68120

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68120/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.