{"id":"CVE-2026-23086","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"vsock/virtio: cap TX credit to local buffer size","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nvsock/virtio: cap TX credit to local buffer size\n\nThe virtio transports derives its TX credit directly from peer_buf_alloc,\nwhich is set from the remote endpoint's SO_VM_SOCKETS_BUFFER_SIZE value.\n\nOn the host side this means that the amount of data we are willing to\nqueue for a connection is scaled by a guest-chosen buffer size, rather\nthan the host's own vsock configuration. A malicious guest can advertise\na large buffer and read slowly, causing the host to allocate a\ncorrespondingly large amount of sk_buff memory.\nThe same thing would happen in the guest with a malicious host, since\nvirtio transports share the same code base.\n\nIntroduce a small helper, virtio_transport_tx_buf_size(), that\nreturns min(peer_buf_alloc, buf_alloc), and use it wherever we consume\npeer_buf_alloc.\n\nThis ensures the effective TX window is bounded by both the peer's\nadvertised buffer and our own buf_alloc (already clamped to\nbuffer_max_size via SO_VM_SOCKETS_BUFFER_MAX_SIZE), so a remote peer\ncannot force the other to queue more data than allowed by its own\nvsock settings.\n\nOn an unpatched Ubuntu 22.04 host (~64 GiB RAM), running a PoC with\n32 guest vsock connections advertising 2 GiB each and reading slowly\ndrove Slab/SUnreclaim from ~0.5 GiB to ~57 GiB; the system only\nrecovered after killing the QEMU process. That said, if QEMU memory is\nlimited with cgroups, the maximum memory used will be limited.\n\nWith this patch applied:\n\n  Before:\n    MemFree:        ~61.6 GiB\n    Slab:           ~142 MiB\n    SUnreclaim:     ~117 MiB\n\n  After 32 high-credit connections:\n    MemFree:        ~61.5 GiB\n    Slab:           ~178 MiB\n    SUnreclaim:     ~152 MiB\n\nOnly ~35 MiB increase in Slab/SUnreclaim, no host OOM, and the guest\nremains responsive.\n\nCompatibility with non-virtio transports:\n\n  - VMCI uses the AF_VSOCK buffer knobs to size its queue pairs per\n    socket based on the local vsk->buffer_* values; the remote side\n    cannot enlarge those queues beyond what the local endpoint\n    configured.\n\n  - Hyper-V's vsock transport uses fixed-size VMBus ring buffers and\n    an MTU bound; there is no peer-controlled credit field comparable\n    to peer_buf_alloc, and the remote endpoint cannot drive in-flight\n    kernel memory above those ring sizes.\n\n  - The loopback path reuses virtio_transport_common.c, so it\n    naturally follows the same semantics as the virtio transport.\n\nThis change is limited to virtio_transport_common.c and thus affects\nvirtio-vsock, vhost-vsock, and loopback, bringing them in line with the\n\"remote window intersected with local policy\" behaviour that VMCI and\nHyper-V already effectively have.\n\n[Stefano: small adjustments after changing the previous patch]\n[Stefano: tweak the commit message]","publishedAt":"2026-02-04T16:08:10.047Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-19T18:25:30.062Z","severity":null,"assigner":"Linux","products":["Linux Linux"],"affected":[{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"06a8fc78367d070720af960dcecec917d3ae5f3b","status":"affected","lessThan":"fef7110ae5617555c792a2bb4d27878d84583adf","versionType":"git"},{"version":"06a8fc78367d070720af960dcecec917d3ae5f3b","status":"affected","lessThan":"d9d5f222558b42f6277eafaaa6080966faf37676","versionType":"git"},{"version":"06a8fc78367d070720af960dcecec917d3ae5f3b","status":"affected","lessThan":"c0e42fb0e054c2b2ec4ee80f48ccd256ae0227ce","versionType":"git"},{"version":"06a8fc78367d070720af960dcecec917d3ae5f3b","status":"affected","lessThan":"84ef86aa7120449828d1e0ce438c499014839711","versionType":"git"},{"version":"06a8fc78367d070720af960dcecec917d3ae5f3b","status":"affected","lessThan":"8ee784fdf006cbe8739cfa093f54d326cbf54037","versionType":"git"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["net/vmw_vsock/virtio_transport_common.c"]},{"vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","defaultStatus":"affected","versions":[{"version":"4.8","status":"affected"},{"version":"0","status":"unaffected","lessThan":"4.8","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.1.162","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.1.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.6.122","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.6.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.12.68","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.12.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.18.8","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"6.18.*","versionType":"semver"},{"version":"6.19","status":"unaffected","lessThanOrEqual":"*","versionType":"original_commit_for_fix"}],"repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","programFiles":["net/vmw_vsock/virtio_transport_common.c"]}],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fef7110ae5617555c792a2bb4d27878d84583adf","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d9d5f222558b42f6277eafaaa6080966faf37676","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c0e42fb0e054c2b2ec4ee80f48ccd256ae0227ce","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/84ef86aa7120449828d1e0ce438c499014839711","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8ee784fdf006cbe8739cfa093f54d326cbf54037","https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html","https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-457936.html"],"weaknesses":["CWE-400"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T20:11:21.040Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23086.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2026-23086","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2026-02-04T16:08:10.047Z","dateUpdated":"2026-10-19T18:25:30.062Z","assignerShortName":"Linux","assignerOrgId":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","dateReserved":"2026-01-13T15:37:45.961Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"title":"vsock/virtio: cap TX credit to local buffer size","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nvsock/virtio: cap TX credit to local buffer size\n\nThe virtio transports derives its TX credit directly from peer_buf_alloc,\nwhich is set from the remote endpoint's SO_VM_SOCKETS_BUFFER_SIZE value.\n\nOn the host side this means that the amount of data we are willing to\nqueue for a connection is scaled by a guest-chosen buffer size, rather\nthan the host's own vsock configuration. A malicious guest can advertise\na large buffer and read slowly, causing the host to allocate a\ncorrespondingly large amount of sk_buff memory.\nThe same thing would happen in the guest with a malicious host, since\nvirtio transports share the same code base.\n\nIntroduce a small helper, virtio_transport_tx_buf_size(), that\nreturns min(peer_buf_alloc, buf_alloc), and use it wherever we consume\npeer_buf_alloc.\n\nThis ensures the effective TX window is bounded by both the peer's\nadvertised buffer and our own buf_alloc (already clamped to\nbuffer_max_size via SO_VM_SOCKETS_BUFFER_MAX_SIZE), so a remote peer\ncannot force the other to queue more data than allowed by its own\nvsock settings.\n\nOn an unpatched Ubuntu 22.04 host (~64 GiB RAM), running a PoC with\n32 guest vsock connections advertising 2 GiB each and reading slowly\ndrove Slab/SUnreclaim from ~0.5 GiB to ~57 GiB; the system only\nrecovered after killing the QEMU process. That said, if QEMU memory is\nlimited with cgroups, the maximum memory used will be limited.\n\nWith this patch applied:\n\n  Before:\n    MemFree:        ~61.6 GiB\n    Slab:           ~142 MiB\n    SUnreclaim:     ~117 MiB\n\n  After 32 high-credit connections:\n    MemFree:        ~61.5 GiB\n    Slab:           ~178 MiB\n    SUnreclaim:     ~152 MiB\n\nOnly ~35 MiB increase in Slab/SUnreclaim, no host OOM, and the guest\nremains responsive.\n\nCompatibility with non-virtio transports:\n\n  - VMCI uses the AF_VSOCK buffer knobs to size its queue pairs per\n    socket based on the local vsk->buffer_* values; the remote side\n    cannot enlarge those queues beyond what the local endpoint\n    configured.\n\n  - Hyper-V's vsock transport uses fixed-size VMBus ring buffers and\n    an MTU bound; there is no peer-controlled credit field comparable\n    to peer_buf_alloc, and the remote endpoint cannot drive in-flight\n    kernel memory above those ring sizes.\n\n  - The loopback path reuses virtio_transport_common.c, so it\n    naturally follows the same semantics as the virtio transport.\n\nThis change is limited to virtio_transport_common.c and thus affects\nvirtio-vsock, vhost-vsock, and loopback, bringing them in line with the\n\"remote window intersected with local policy\" behaviour that VMCI and\nHyper-V already effectively have.\n\n[Stefano: small adjustments after changing the previous patch]\n[Stefano: tweak the commit 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