# CVE-2026-68294: net: qrtr: restrict socket creation to the initial network namespace

> Unprivileged users can bypass network namespace isolation to send QRTR messages to other namespaces, breaking security boundaries.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:** 10 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-68294, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68294, GHSA-5jp7-rp9x-4m4q, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-68294

## What is CVE-2026-68294?

CVE-2026-68294 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 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:

net: qrtr: restrict socket creation to the initial network namespace

QRTR keeps its entire port and node state in module-global variables
that are not partitioned per network namespace: qrtr_local_nid is a
single global node id (always 1) and qrtr_ports is a single global
xarray. qrtr_port_lookup() and qrtr_local_enqueue() operate on that
global state with no network-namespace check, and qrtr_create() places
no restriction on the namespace a socket is created in.

As a result an unprivileged process that creates an AF_QIPCRTR socket
in a separate network namespace, e.g. via
unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_NEWNET), can send QRTR datagrams -
including control-plane messages such as QRTR_TYPE_NEW_SERVER - to QRTR
sockets owned by another namespace, and vice versa. The receiving
socket sees such a message as coming from node id 1, indistinguishable
from a legitimate local client, breaking the isolation that network
namespaces are expected to provide.

QRTR is a transport to global hardware endpoints (the modem and other
remote processors) and has no per-namespace semantics; its in-kernel
name service already creates its socket in init_net only. Confine the
socket family to the initial network namespace, as other
non-namespace-aware socket families do (see llc_ui_create() and the
ieee802154 socket code).

Weakness: CWE-862 (Missing Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-68294?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-68294?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-68294 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-68294 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-68294 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-68294 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Linux, published on 10 Aug 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-2026-68294 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-2026-68294/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68294/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-68294
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-68294
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-68294

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-68294/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.