CVE-2026-23378
Published: March 25, 2026· Updated: Mar 25, 2026
Official Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/sched: act_ife: Fix metalist update behavior
Whenever an ife action replace changes the metalist, instead of
replacing the old data on the metalist, the current ife code is appending
the new metadata. Aside from being innapropriate behavior, this may lead
to an unbounded addition of metadata to the metalist which might cause an
out of bounds error when running the encode op:
[ 138.423369][ C1] ==================================================================
[ 138.424317][ C1] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168)
[ 138.424906][ C1] Write of size 4 at addr ffff8880077f4ffe by task ife_out_out_bou/255
[ 138.425778][ C1] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 255 Comm: ife_out_out_bou Not tainted 7.0.0-rc1-00169-gfbdfa8da05b6 #624 PREEMPT(full)
[ 138.425795][ C1] Hardware name: Bochs Bochs, BIOS Bochs 01/01/2011
[ 138.425800][ C1] Call Trace:
[ 138.425804][ C1] <IRQ>
[ 138.425808][ C1] dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:122)
[ 138.425828][ C1] print_report (mm/kasan/report.c:379 mm/kasan/report.c:482)
[ 138.425839][ C1] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221)
[ 138.425844][ C1] ? __virt_addr_valid (./arch/x86/include/asm/preempt.h:95 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/rcupdate.h:975 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/mmzone.h:2207 (discriminator 1) arch/x86/mm/physaddr.c:54 (discriminator 1))
[ 138.425853][ C1] ? ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168)
[ 138.425859][ C1] kasan_report (mm/kasan/report.c:221 mm/kasan/report.c:597)
[ 138.425868][ C1] ? ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168)
[ 138.425878][ C1] kasan_check_range (mm/kasan/generic.c:186 (discriminator 1) mm/kasan/generic.c:200 (discriminator 1))
[ 138.425884][ C1] __asan_memset (mm/kasan/shadow.c:84 (discriminator 2))
[ 138.425889][ C1] ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:168)
[ 138.425893][ C1] ? ife_tlv_meta_encode (net/ife/ife.c:171)
[ 138.425898][ C1] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221)
[ 138.425903][ C1] ife_encode_meta_u16 (net/sched/act_ife.c:57)
[ 138.425910][ C1] ? __pfx_do_raw_spin_lock (kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:114)
[ 138.425916][ C1] ? __asan_memcpy (mm/kasan/shadow.c:105 (discriminator 3))
[ 138.425921][ C1] ? __pfx_ife_encode_meta_u16 (net/sched/act_ife.c:45)
[ 138.425927][ C1] ? srso_alias_return_thunk (arch/x86/lib/retpoline.S:221)
[ 138.425931][ C1] tcf_ife_act (net/sched/act_ife.c:847 net/sched/act_ife.c:879)
To solve this issue, fix the replace behavior by adding the metalist to
the ife rcu data structure.
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-23378 requires local access, meaning attackers must already have a foothold on the target system.
Exploitation requires some privileges, which limits the exposure to scenarios where an attacker has already gained initial access.
Affected Vendors & Products
Exploit & PoC Resources
All References (6)
Quick Facts
Recommended Actions
- →Apply vendor patches immediately
- →Monitor CVE-2026-23378 in threat intel feeds
- →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts