vsock/virtio: Coalesce only linear skb
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vsock/virtio: Coalesce only linear skb vsock/virtio common tries to coalesce buffers in rx queue: if a linear skb (with a spare tail room) is followed by a small skb (length limited by GOOD_COPY_LEN = 128), an attempt is made to join them. Since the introduction of MSG_ZEROCOPY support, assumption that a small skb will always be linear is incorrect. In the zerocopy case, data is lost and the linear skb is appended with uninitialized kernel memory. Of all 3 supported virtio-based transports, only loopback-transport is affected. G2H virtio-transport rx queue operates on explicitly linear skbs; see virtio_vsock_alloc_linear_skb() in virtio_vsock_rx_fill(). H2G vhost-transport may allocate non-linear skbs, but only for sizes that are not considered for coalescence; see PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER in virtio_vsock_alloc_skb(). Ensure only linear skbs are coalesced. Note that skb_tailroom(last_skb) > 0 guarantees last_skb is linear.
02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE
Affected packages
03 / CONNECTIONS
Connected vulnerabilities
04 / EVIDENCE
Source records
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vsock/virtio: Coalesce only linear skb vsock/virtio common tries to coalesce buffers in rx queue: if a linear skb (with a spare tail room) is followed by a small skb (length limited by GOOD_COPY_LEN = 128), an attempt is made to join them. Since the introduction of MSG_ZEROCOPY support, assumption that a small skb will always be linear is incorrect. In the zerocopy case, data is lost and the linear skb is appended with uninitialized kernel memory. Of all 3 supported virtio-based transports, only loopback-transport is affected. G2H virtio-transport rx queue operates on explicitly linear skbs; see virtio_vsock_alloc_linear_skb() in virtio_vsock_rx_fill(). H2G vhost-transport may allocate non-linear skbs, but only for sizes that are not considered for coalescence; see PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER in virtio_vsock_alloc_skb(). Ensure only linear skbs are coalesced. Note that skb_tailroom(last_skb) > 0 guarantees last_skb is linear.
05 / REFERENCES
Further evidence
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0386bd321d0f95d041a7b3d7b07643411b044a96
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/568e9cd8ed7ca9bf748c7687ba6501f29d30e59f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/63ef9b300bd09e24c57050c5dbe68feedce42e72
- https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23057.json
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23057