published September 25, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: ipv6: Fix UDP length overflow with PMTU discover and big MTU
This commit bounds cork->base.fragsize to IP6_MAX_MTU for UDP sockets to
avoid a possible overflow of UDP length that triggers a WARN in
udp_set_len_short when setsockopt IPV6_MTU_DISCOVER is set to
IPV6_PMTUDISC_DO or IPV6_PMTUDISC_PROBE, and a large packet is sent over
a netdev with an unusually large MTU.
Steps to reproduce (included in the new selftest):
1. Set device MTU bigger than IP6_MAX_MTU. cork->base.fragsize will be
set to that MTU in ip6_setup_cork.
2. Set IPV6_MTU_DISCOVER to IPV6_PMTUDISC_PROBE or IPV6_PMTUDISC_DO. It
lets maxnonfragsize be set to device MTU (cork->fragsize) in
__ip6_append_data, rather than to IP6_MAX_MTU.
3. Send 65528 bytes of payload (+8 bytes of UDP header, +40 bytes of
IPv6 header). Device MTU allows it (it's only one byte bigger than
IP6_MAX_MTU, and the device MTU is bigger than that).
4. The UDP length in the built packet is 65536, which overflows the
16-bit length field and triggers the WARN in udp_set_len_short.
To avoid breaking sending UDP jumbograms over raw IPv6 sockets, limit
the change to UDP sockets only.
The original overflow bug with IPv6 and IPV6_PMTUDISC_DO seems to
predate git history (verified reproduction on 2.6.21), was fixed later,
and then reappeared in commit 427faee167bc ("net: ipv6: introduce
ip6_dst_mtu_maybe_forward"), which is chosen as the Fixes tag here. The
overflow with IPV6_PMTUDISC_PROBE reproduces since its introduction in
commit 628a5c561890 ("[INET]: Add IP(V6)_PMTUDISC_RPOBE").