CVE-2026-72408

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's geneve component. An attacker can send a specially crafted Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation) packet that exploits a discrepancy in how GRO (Generic Receive Offload) hints are processed. The geneve_gro_complete() function processes these hints unconditionally, even when the geneve_gro_receive() function does not validate them. This allows an attacker to trigger an out-of-bounds read, which can lead to a system crash and a denial of service.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact because exploiting it is restricted to causing a kernel crash and denial of service, with no mechanism for privilege escalation or remote code execution. Geneve network tunneling is not enabled by default, and systems are only exposed if a tunnel interface is actively configured and processing untrusted encapsulation traffic. Furthermore, enterprise platforms such as RHEL 8 and 9 do not include the vulnerable GRO hint logic and remain unaffected.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.