Linux Kernel up to 6.1.161/6.6.122/6.12.68/6.18.8 bonding toctou

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.161/6.6.122/6.12.68/6.18.8 and classified as critical. Affected is an unknown function of the component bonding. Such manipulation leads to an unknown weakness. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-23212. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.161/6.6.122/6.12.68/6.18.8 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code of the component bonding. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-367. The product checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check. This can cause the product to perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bonding: annotate data-races around slave->last_rx slave->last_rx and slave->target_last_arp_rx[...] can be read and written locklessly. Add READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE() annotations. syzbot reported: BUG: KCSAN: data-race in bond_rcv_validate / bond_rcv_validate write to 0xffff888149f0d428 of 8 bytes by interrupt on cpu 1: bond_rcv_validate+0x202/0x7a0 drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c:3335 bond_handle_frame+0xde/0x5e0 drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c:1533 __netif_receive_skb_core+0x5b1/0x1950 net/core/dev.c:6039 __netif_receive_skb_one_core net/core/dev.c:6150 [inline] __netif_receive_skb+0x59/0x270 net/core/dev.c:6265 netif_receive_skb_internal net/core/dev.c:6351 [inline] netif_receive_skb+0x4b/0x2d0 net/core/dev.c:6410 ... write to 0xffff888149f0d428 of 8 bytes by interrupt on cpu 0: bond_rcv_validate+0x202/0x7a0 drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c:3335 bond_handle_frame+0xde/0x5e0 drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c:1533 __netif_receive_skb_core+0x5b1/0x1950 net/core/dev.c:6039 __netif_receive_skb_one_core net/core/dev.c:6150 [inline] __netif_receive_skb+0x59/0x270 net/core/dev.c:6265 netif_receive_skb_internal net/core/dev.c:6351 [inline] netif_receive_skb+0x4b/0x2d0 net/core/dev.c:6410 br_netif_receive_skb net/bridge/br_input.c:30 [inline] NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:318 [inline] ... value changed: 0x0000000100005365 -> 0x0000000100005366

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-23212 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 299437 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-23212), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.162, 6.6.123, 6.12.69 or 6.18.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch a7516cb0165926d308187e231ccd330e5e3ebff7/8c0be3277e7aefb2f900fc37ca3fe7df362e26f5/b956289b83887e0a306067b6003c3fcd81bfdf84/bd98324e327e41de04b13e372cc16f73150df254/f6c3665b6dc53c3ab7d31b585446a953a74340ef is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (299437) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0462). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.161
• 6.6.122
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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