Linux Kernel Vulnerability in Open vSwitch Affects Networking Performance

CVE-2026-74701

What is CVE-2026-74701?

A vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's Open vSwitch component where improper validation of Ethernet header lengths can lead to a kernel bug during packet processing. Specifically, when packets arrive on a non-Ethernet device (like TUN), the system failingly trusts the user-defined skb->protocol field. This oversight can result in an unhandled situation where critical functions like key_extract() operate on potentially insufficient data, causing significant operational issues. The flaw has been rectified by introducing a header check to ensure that the Ethernet header is valid before any further processing.

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