Linux Kernel up to 6.18.49/7.2.3 net-smc smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys num_rkeys out-of-bounds

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
9.5	$0-$5k	0.00+

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.49/7.2.3 and classified as very critical. Affected is the function smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys of the component net-smc. This manipulation of the argument num_rkeys causes out-of-bounds. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-80986. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.49/7.2.3. Affected by this vulnerability is the function smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys of the component net-smc. The manipulation of the argument num_rkeys with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/smc: bound the peer rkey counts in SMC-Rv2 LLC messages On a link whose device has max_recv_sge == 1 there is no shared v2 receive buffer, and smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys() takes the v2 extension from 44 bytes past the start of the queue entry's inline message: ext = (struct smc_llc_msg_add_link_v2_ext *)(llc_msg + SMC_WR_TX_SIZE); The entry is a 72-byte allocation and the extension starts at offset 68, so ext->num_rkeys at offset 94 is already past it. This happens on every SMC-Rv2 link addition, whatever the peer sends: [ 2.490065] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490431] Read of size 2 at addr ffff8880056406de by task smctest/106 [ 2.490709] [ 2.490792] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 106 Comm: smctest Not tainted 7.2.0-rc5-p1-g77a5d9d9c99f #32 PREEMPT(lazy) [ 2.490795] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 2.490798] Call Trace: [ 2.490803] <TASK> [ 2.490805] dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70 [ 2.490810] print_report+0xd0/0x630 [ 2.490828] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490832] ? smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490834] kasan_report+0xce/0x100 [ 2.490836] ? smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490837] smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490839] ? smcr_buf_map_lgr+0x1bf/0x2b0 [ 2.490844] smc_llc_cli_add_link+0xca7/0x1e80 [ 2.490848] ? smc_llc_wait+0x355/0x810 [ 2.490850] ? __pfx_smc_llc_wait+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490851] ? __pfx_smc_llc_cli_add_link+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490853] ? __pfx_autoremove_wake_function+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490863] __smc_connect+0x3f5c/0x4980 [ 2.490873] ? __pfx_kernel_connect+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490888] ? __pfx___smc_connect+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490891] ? release_sock+0x148/0x1d0 [ 2.490894] smc_connect+0x42c/0x580 [ 2.490896] __sys_connect+0xfc/0x130 [ 2.490898] ? __pfx___sys_connect+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490900] ? handle_mm_fault+0x1a1/0x430 [ 2.490908] __x64_sys_connect+0x6d/0xb0 [ 2.490909] ? fpregs_assert_state_consistent+0x56/0xe0 [ 2.490917] do_syscall_64+0xf9/0x540 [ 2.490921] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f [ 2.490924] RIP: 0033:0x421bb4 [ 2.490927] Code: ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d ad 34 09 00 00 74 13 b8 2a 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 4c c3 0f 1f 00 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 10 89 55 [ 2.490929] RSP: 002b:00007ffd473b01a8 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002a [ 2.490935] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000421bb4 [ 2.490936] RDX: 0000000000000010 RSI: 00007ffd473b01d0 RDI: 0000000000000003 [ 2.490937] RBP: 0000000000003930 R08: 0000000000000004 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 2.490938] R10: 00007ffd473b0f98 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000006 [ 2.490939] R13: 00007ffd473b0f87 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 00007ffd473b0f90 [ 2.490940] </TASK> [ 2.490941] [ 2.499545] Allocated by task 44: [ 2.499693] kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 [ 2.499860] kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 [ 2.500026] __kasan_kmalloc+0x8f/0xa0 [ 2.500190] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x158/0x370 [ 2.500393] smc_llc_enqueue+0x72/0x560 [ 2.500559] smc_wr_rx_tasklet_fn+0x474/0xa80 [ 2.500747] tasklet_action_common+0x20f/0x8a0 [ 2.500945] handle_softirqs+0x18e/0x590 [ 2.501115] do_softirq+0x3b/0x60 [ 2.501266] __local_bh_enable_ip+0x61/0x70 [ 2.501446] __alloc_skb+0x732/0x890 [ 2.501604] rxe_init_packet+0x16b/0x4f0 [ 2.501783] prepare_ack_packet+0xb8/0x830 [ 2.501962] rxe_receiver+0x495/0x96e0 [ 2.502125] do_work+0x144/0x470 [ 2.502269] process_one_work+0x633/0x1030 [ 2.502450] worker_thread+0x45b/0xd10 [ 2.50261 ---truncated---

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-80986 since 08/26/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/11/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.18.50, 7.2.4 or 7.3-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 486c699a8cde82c1d9b4f443eeab4ddf86358cb0/5e5d9e6df677d30a2203d257b5fd8b99814fa607/2d1e7c5aaa3326e95e2058457f172ca99a9a4577 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 10.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 9.5

VulDB Base Score: 10.0
VulDB Temp Score: 9.5
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Out-of-bounds
CWE: CWE-125 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.18.50/7.2.4/7.3-rc1
Patch: 486c699a8cde82c1d9b4f443eeab4ddf86358cb0/5e5d9e6df677d30a2203d257b5fd8b99814fa607/2d1e7c5aaa3326e95e2058457f172ca99a9a4577

Timelineinfo

08/26/2026 CVE reserved
09/11/2026 +16 days Advisory disclosed
09/11/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
09/11/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-80986 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-80986
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-402643

Entryinfo

Created: 09/11/2026 23:16
Changes: 09/11/2026 23:16 (60)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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Discussion

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