CVE-2026-98929 macsec: initialize SecY before registering the netdevice

What is CVE-2026-98929?

CVE-2026-98929 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 23 Oct 2026.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

macsec: initialize SecY before registering the netdevice

Creating a MACsec device with MAC offload over an LRO-capable lower device triggers a warning in rtmsg_ifinfo_build_skb() when IPv4 forwarding is enabled by default.

register_netdevice() invokes inetdev_init(), which disables LRO and emits a NETDEV_FEAT_CHANGE notification. This reaches macsec_fill_info() before macsec_add_dev() initializes the SecY. key_len is still zero, so macsec_fill_info() returns -EMSGSIZE and trips the WARN_ON in rtmsg_ifinfo_build_skb(), even though the skb has enough space.

Even without the warning, notifications during registration can report uninitialized SecY attributes, including the SCI. This ordering has existed since the driver was introduced.

Initialize the SecY and apply the new-link attributes before registration. Move MAC address inheritance into macsec_newlink() so the SCI can also be initialized before registration-time notifications report it. Move the per-CPU statistics and metadata destination allocation into ndo_init(), and release partial allocations on failure.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98929?

How do I fix CVE-2026-98929?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Is CVE-2026-98929 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98929 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

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

Also known as AZL-110708, BELL-CVE-2026-98929, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98929, GHSA-83cv-x2cm-qpmg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98929.