In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: cap advertised IP tunnel headroom IP tunnel devices derive their advertised needed_headroom from lower output devices. A stack of user-created devices can make the derived value larger than the 16-bit skb header offsets can represent. Once IP output reserves it, skb head expansion can wrap those offsets. The runtime transmit path already caps a growing needed_headroom at 512. Apply the same cap when tunnel configuration publishes needed_headroom derived from a lower output device. Capping the advertised value is safe: IP tunnel transmit still expands the skb when a packet needs more headroom. A nonsensical stacked configuration can therefore incur an extra reallocation, but it cannot publish an unbounded reservation to upper layers.

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel, specifically within its IP tunnel devices. A local attacker could create a stack of user-controlled IP tunnel devices, causing the system to miscalculate the required memory for network packet headers. This miscalculation can lead to unnecessary memory reallocations during packet transmission, which may result in performance degradation for network operations.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Out of support scope kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Affected kernel-rt Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected kernel-rt Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Affected openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Affected openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-80978 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-80978 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-80978.mbox