bnxt: fix head underflow on XDP head-grow
CVE-2026-74269 · published 15 Aug 2026
How serious is it
- Severity: critical, CVSS score 9.8 out of 10.
- No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
- Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
- No public exploit in Exploit-DB.
Is your app affected by CVE-2026-74269?
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Who is affected
- Linux Linux: f6974b4c2d8e1062b5a52228ee47293c15b4ee1e to < 3e8f3959a7fd28461b8cd9708c21286b4250b77a, f6974b4c2d8e1062b5a52228ee47293c15b4ee1e to < ff34e5a26a26c92142afea11455e259c4c4c617b, f6974b4c2d8e1062b5a52228ee47293c15b4ee1e to < 4c03275bc4435cc8e25f7f3f08aff58c0e783d8d, f6974b4c2d8e1062b5a52228ee47293c15b4ee1e to < bb72b1c6755631c74b7e0878ee55bb81c06776c0
- Linux Linux: 6.5
How to check
- Find out whether you run the affected product and which version, then compare it with the versions above.
How to fix
Copies a prompt for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex that asks it to check whether you run this product.
- Apply the vendor's update or mitigation from the references below. If there is none yet, limit exposure of the affected service until there is.
- If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.
The advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
bnxt: fix head underflow on XDP head-grow
The xdp.py test test_xdp_native_adjst_head_grow_data crashes when run on
a bnxt machine (and also crashes in NIPA).
It seems that the bug is an underflow in bnxt_rx_multi_page_skb, which
builds the skb head:
napi_build_skb(data_ptr - bp->rx_offset, rxr->rx_page_size);
The problem with this expression is that in page mode, rx_offset is:
bp->rx_offset = NET_IP_ALIGN + XDP_PACKET_HEADROOM;
Which evaluates (at least on x86_64) to 258.
The test test_xdp_native_adjst_head_grow_data tests a case where the
head is adjusted by -256.
When this test runs, data_ptr is shifted to frag_start + 2 (where
frag_start = page_address(page) + offset).
Then, bnxt_rx_multi_page_skb is invoked and the napi_build_skb
expression subtracts 258, landing at an address before frag_start. This
could be either the previous fragment or the previous physical page when
the offset is < 256 (e.g. if the fragment started at offset 0).
When the skb is freed, the page pool fragment reference is dropped on
either the wrong page or the wrong frag of the right page. In either
case, the corrupted reference count can lead to the page being
prematurely recycled while still in use. Once (incorrectly) recycled, it
can be handed out again and on driver teardown this would result in a
double free.
The commit under fixes updated this code to handle the case where the
native page size is >= 64k, but it unintentionally broke the head grow
case.
To fix this, add an offset field to struct bnxt_sw_rx_bd, mirroring the
existing offset field in struct bnxt_sw_rx_agg_bd. Populate it on
allocation and preserve it on reuse.
In bnxt_rx_multi_page_skb, use the newly added offset field to compute
the fragment start and pass that to napi_build_skb. Adjust the layout
with skb_reserve.
There are two cases, the non-adjustment case and the adjustment case.
In both cases, the skb is built at page_address(page) + offset to
account for the case where the native page size >= 64K and skb_reserve
is called with data_ptr - (page_address(page) + offset). That
difference equals bp->rx_offset when data_ptr was not moved, or
bp->rx_offset + xdp_adjust when XDP adjusted the head.
Re-running the failing test with this commit applied causes the test to
run successfully to completion.
The other rx_skb_func implementations don't have this issue.
Check your whole app
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References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e8f3959a7fd28461b8cd9708c21286b4250b77a
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/ff34e5a26a26c92142afea11455e259c4c4c617b
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/4c03275bc4435cc8e25f7f3f08aff58c0e783d8d
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/bb72b1c6755631c74b7e0878ee55bb81c06776c0
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/e26657fe3b85c068b01f42bb0c602f242d643ba9
Merged from CVE List. Last updated 25 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON