SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2026-43284

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: esp: avoid in-place decrypt on shared skb frags MSG_SPLICE_PAGES can attach pages from a pipe directly to an skb.

EXPLOIT ×2HIGH 8.8EPSS 94.2%

Does this matter?

EPSS puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 94.2%, higher than 100% of all known CVEs. Patch or mitigate before the next change window.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: esp: avoid in-place decrypt on shared skb frags MSG_SPLICE_PAGES can attach pages from a pipe directly to an skb. TCP marks such skbs with SKBFL_SHARED_FRAG after skb_splice_from_iter(), so later paths that may modify packet data can first make a private copy. The IPv4/IPv6 datagram append paths did not set this flag when splicing pages into UDP skbs. That leaves an ESP-in-UDP packet made from shared pipe pages looking like an ordinary uncloned nonlinear skb. ESP input then takes the no-COW fast path for uncloned skbs without a frag_list and decrypts in place over data that is not owned privately by the skb. Mark IPv4/IPv6 datagram splice frags with SKBFL_SHARED_FRAG, matching TCP. Also make ESP input fall back to skb_cow_data() when the flag is present, so ESP does not decrypt externally backed frags in place. Private nonlinear skb frags still use the existing fast path. This intentionally does not change ESP output. In esp_output_head(), the path that appends the ESP trailer to existing skb tailroom without calling skb_cow_data() is not reachable for nonlinear skbs: skb_tailroom() returns zero when skb->data_len is nonzero, while ESP tailen is positive. Thus ESP output will either use the separate destination-frag path or fall back to skb_cow_data().

CVSS 3.1
8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
94.19% probability · 100th percentile
Public exploits
2 in Exploit-DB · first 27 May 2026
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-123
Affected
linux/linux kernel
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
EPSS trend
0%48%95%24 September 2026: 2.47%16 October 2026: 94.19%30 October 2026: 94.19%24 September 202630 October 2026

EPSS moved from 2.5% on 24 September 2026 to 94.2% on 30 October 2026. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”.

Public exploits (2)

Entries in Exploit-DB that cite this CVE. Links go to the Exploit-DB page and to the file in the public repository; nothing is hosted here. A verified tick means the Exploit-DB team confirmed the exploit works against the stated version.

EDB-IDTitleTypePublishedVerified
EDB-52591source ↗Linux Kernel - Local Privilege Escalationlinux · nu11secur1tylocal29 May 2026no
EDB-52585source ↗Linux Kernel - Local Privilege Escalationlinux · nu11secur1tylocal27 May 2026no

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.