In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...
Unreviewed
Published
Sep 4, 2026
to the GitHub Advisory Database
•
Updated Sep 4, 2026
Description
Published by the National Vulnerability Database
Sep 4, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database
Sep 4, 2026
Last updated
Sep 4, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ipv4: reject undersized MTUs in ip_do_fragment()
ip_do_fragment() subtracts the IPv4 header length from the effective
MTU and passes the resulting payload MTU to ip_frag_next().
If the effective MTU is smaller than hlen + 8, ip_frag_next() rounds
the fragment payload length down to zero. The fragmentation state then
never makes forward progress: state->left, state->ptr and state->offset
stay unchanged while ip_do_fragment() keeps allocating and transmitting
header-only fragments until the softlockup detector fires.
This is reproducible with a route installed using "mtu lock 20", but it
is also reproducible without route MTU lock, for example by forwarding a
packet to a device whose MTU is 20.
Fix it in ip_do_fragment() by rejecting mtu < hlen + 8 with -EMSGSIZE,
matching the existing IPv6 fragmentation check.
References