Linux Kernel up to 6.12.108/6.18.49/7.2.3 ip6_tunnel ip6_tnl_xmit use after free

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	$5k-$25k	2.05+

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as very critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.108/6.18.49/7.2.3. Affected is the function ip6_tnl_xmit of the component ip6_tunnel. The manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-89563. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.108/6.18.49/7.2.3. It has been rated as very critical. This issue affects the function ip6_tnl_xmit of the component ip6_tunnel. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ip6_tunnel: use skb_cow_head() in ip6_tnl_xmit() ip6_tnl_xmit() may need to expand headroom before it can push the outer IPv6 and optional encap headers. It currently does that with skb_realloc_headroom(), copies skb->sk ownership, consumes the original skb, and then continues processing with the replacement skb kept only in its local variable. That is safe only if the helper cannot fail afterwards. But this helper still has post-reallocation error exits. collect_md tunnels reject non-NONE encap after the replacement, and ip6_tnl_encap() can also fail later. In those cases the helper returns an error to its callers while the caller still only has the original skb pointer. Both ip6_tnl_start_xmit() and the IPv6 GRE paths free the caller skb on error, so they can end up freeing an skb that ip6_tnl_xmit() already consumed. Use skb_cow_head() instead. It provides the required headroom and writability without privately replacing the caller-owned skb, so later error returns cannot leave callers with a stale pointer. The Ethernet users, ip6gretap and ip6erspan, clear IFF_TX_SKB_SHARING and already call skb_cow_head() before entering ip6_tnl_xmit(). They do not rely on the removed skb_shared() reallocation. This also makes the IPv6 tunnel path consistent with ip_tunnel_xmit().

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-89563 since 09/11/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/12/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.12.109, 6.18.50, 7.2.4 or 7.3-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 37df5bc6b5ccad88c2faa0f5466f150178882b74/b36dfd6e8cff00cea81c11cc0af88d1564763461/8fc56ca49fc0ee1725b55c67bb43ab0dd01f3f52/87f21b59ddc618eff9670c174842964ad65fdade is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.108
• 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: Use after free
CWE: CWE-416 / 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 6.12.109/6.18.50/7.2.4/7.3-rc1
Patch: 37df5bc6b5ccad88c2faa0f5466f150178882b74/b36dfd6e8cff00cea81c11cc0af88d1564763461/8fc56ca49fc0ee1725b55c67bb43ab0dd01f3f52/87f21b59ddc618eff9670c174842964ad65fdade

Timelineinfo

09/11/2026 CVE reserved
09/11/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
09/12/2026 +0 days Advisory disclosed
09/12/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-89563 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-89563
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-402929

Entryinfo

Created: 09/12/2026 01:54
Changes: 09/12/2026 01:54 (59)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion

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