CVE-2026-98929 json
macsec: initialize SecY before registering the netdevice
published 19d ago modified 19d ago also EUVD-2026-108899
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 6%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
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.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 7.3
- linux Debian 14 7.2.9-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98929
- linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
- linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
- linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42.1
- linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.16
- linux-hwe-7.0 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
- linux-oem-7.0 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98929
Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0
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Check with FencerVendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-98929 updated cvss 3.0
kernel: macsec: initialize SecY before registering the netdevice
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 morenot affected: vulnerable code not present
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
Exploit prediction
0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-98929
- NVD CVE-2026-98929
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