mctp: serial: handle zero-length frames to prevent rx buffer overflow
CVE-2026-68124 is fixed in 17 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68124, released August 11, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mctp: serial: handle zero-length frames to prevent rx buffer overflow The MCTP serial receive state machine reads a frame length byte in mctp_serial_push_header() case 2 and validates it upper-bound-only: if (c > MCTP_SERIAL_FRAME_MTU) { dev->rxstate = STATE_ERR; } else { dev->rxlen = c; dev->rxpos = 0; dev->rxstate = STATE_DATA; ... } A length of zero passes this check, so rxlen is set to 0 and the state machine advances to STATE_DATA. In mctp_serial_push() STATE_DATA, the incoming byte is stored and rxpos incremented before the terminator is dev->rxbuf[dev->rxpos] = c; dev->rxpos++; dev->rxstate = STATE_DATA; if (dev->rxpos == dev->rxlen) { dev->rxpos = 0; dev->rxstate = STATE_TRAILER; } With rxlen == 0 the "rxpos == rxlen" terminator can never fire (rxpos is already 1 on the first data byte), so subsequent bytes are written past the end of the fixed 74-byte rxbuf, which is the last member of the netdev private area. Every following data byte is an attacker-controlled 1-byte out-of-bounds heap write, and the overflow continues until a frame (0x7e) or escape byte resets the parser -- effectively unbounded. Reaching this requires CAP_NET_ADMIN to attach the N_MCTP line discipline and bring the resulting mctpserialN netdev up, after which the bytes arrive via the tty receive path. Route a zero-length frame straight to STATE_TRAILER instead of STATE_DATA. The trailer/framing bytes are still consumed, and the frame resolves to a zero-length skb that the MCTP core rejects; the parser never enters STATE_DATA with rxlen == 0, so the out-of-bounds write can no longer occur. KASAN, on a frame of 0x7e 0x01 0x00 followed by data bytes (before this change): UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in drivers/net/mctp/mctp-serial.c:370 index 74 is out of range for type 'u8 [74]' BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in mctp_serial_tty_receive_buf Write of size 1 at addr ... by task kworker/u16:0 mctp_serial_tty_receive_buf tty_ldisc_receive_buf flush_to_ldisc Allocated by task 152: alloc_netdev_mqs mctp_serial_open v2: route zero-length frames to STATE_TRAILER instead of STATE_ERR so the trailer/framing bytes are still consumed (Jeremy Kerr). Found by 0sec automated security-research tooling (https://0sec.ai).
Where it's fixed
| Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | |||
| dtb-aarch64 · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-64kb · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-64kb · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-64kb · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-azure · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-azure · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-azure · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-default · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-default · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-default · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-default-base · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1.160000.2.22 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-default-base · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1.150700.17.45.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-default-base · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1.160000.2.23 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-docs · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-docs · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-docs · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-kvmsmall · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-kvmsmall · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7-RT_Update_20 · sles 15.7 | 1-150700.1.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4120-1 | Sep 10, 2026 |
| kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7_Update_21 · sles 15.7 | 1-150700.15.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-obs-build · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-obs-build · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-obs-qa · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-obs-qa · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-rt · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-source · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-source · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-source · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-syms · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-syms · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-syms · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-zfcpdump · opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | OPENSUSE-SU-2026:21910-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| kernel-zfcpdump · sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.81.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:4254-1 | Oct 7, 2026 |
| kernel-zfcpdump · sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.38.1 | SUSE-SU-2026:23902-1 | Sep 22, 2026 |
| linux · Debian 12.15 (bookworm) | 6.1.187-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68124 | Aug 11, 2026 |
| linux · Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 6.12.101-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68124 | Aug 11, 2026 |
| linux · Debian 14 | 7.1.6-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68124 | Aug 11, 2026 |
| linux-6.12 · Debian 12.15 (bookworm) | 6.12.101-1~deb12u1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-68124 | Aug 11, 2026 |
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