Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-46300 exploited in the wild?
- Yes. CVE-2026-46300 is known to be exploited in the wild, first recorded on 28 October 2026. Treat it as urgent.
- How severe is CVE-2026-46300?
- Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 7.8, published 23 May 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Linux Kernel Versions supporting ESP-in-TCP (espintcp) module.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-46300?
- A patch was published on 2026-05-23: Fixes merged into various stable kernel branches Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-46300 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in an operating system.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-46300?
- Check whether you run Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform or Linux Kernel at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's skbuff management where the skb_try_coalesce() function fails to propagate the SKBFL_SHARED_FRAG (or SKBTX_SHARED_FRAG in older versions) flag when attaching paged fragments. This flag indicates that fragments are externally owned or page-cache-backed. When this marker is lost, subsequent in-place writers—specifically the ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) input path—may incorrectly assume the data is safe to modify in place. This can result in the kernel decrypting data directly over page-cache backed fragments, leading to an out-of-bounds write (CWE-787) or memory corruption. The issue has been resolved by ensuring the shared-fragment bit is propagated during fragment transfers.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel 3.9 to 5.10.257, 5.11 to 5.15.208, 5.16 to 6.1.174, 6.2 to 6.6.141, 6.7 to 6.12.91, 6.13 to 6.18.33, 6.19 to 7.0.10
Identifiers
- CVE-2026-46300
- CVE-2026-43284
Timeline
- 2026-05-13: disclosed: Vulnerability reported by William Bowling
- 2026-05-23: patched: Fixes merged into various stable kernel branches
- 2026-05-23: advisory: Initial NVD publication
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f2b16022a2e10ca7bccfb98db5ed2ec0f72641c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3599e6b3cc1ada96883d496a50a210d3afbb6987
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3884358a9286b17f389a72b1426fc4547c23c111
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bd9e113d50034db99d7ef69fd8e5242d15e414a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/760e1addc27ba1a7beb4a0a7e8b3e9ec49e7a34e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78bf6b6bb19541d19fbda6242e7cfe2c682763c0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9d3e5fd19fe1063bf607219e8562fbd567b8e8d5