# CVE-2026-98375: xen/netfront: drop RX packets with a short Ethernet header

> A malicious Xen backend can cause a kernel crash or memory read by sending network packets with short Ethernet headers.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-110453, BELL-CVE-2026-98375, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98375, GHSA-6q97-4p5q-xv9v, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98375

## What is CVE-2026-98375?

CVE-2026-98375 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Oct 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:

xen/netfront: drop RX packets with a short Ethernet header

handle_incoming_queue() pulls pull_to bytes into the head before
calling eth_type_trans().  pull_to is the length of the first RX slot,
capped at RX_COPY_THRESHOLD, and that length comes from the backend.
Nothing checks it against ETH_HLEN.

If the first slot is shorter than ETH_HLEN and more slots follow, the
head ends up shorter than an Ethernet header while skb->len is longer,
and eth_type_trans() BUG()s in __skb_pull().  If the whole packet is
shorter than ETH_HLEN, eth_type_trans() reads the header past the end
of the data instead.

Pull at least ETH_HLEN, and drop the packet if that fails, which also
drops packets too short to hold an Ethernet header.  This also checks
the return value of the pull, which was ignored.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98375?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-98375?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98375 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98375 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98375 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98375 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Oct 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-2026-98375 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-2026-98375/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98375/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98375
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98375
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98375

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98375/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.