CVE-2026-53009
ice: fix double-free of tx_buf skb
Vexday Risk Score
3Low
SSVC decision (CISA)
Track
No exploitation signal → monitor
CVSS —EPSS 0.2%KEV nãoPoC —Nuclei —Metasploit —Patch —
Lifecycle
24 Jun 2026Published on NVD
Recommendation: Monitor — no exploitation signal at the moment.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ice: fix double-free of tx_buf skb
If ice_tso() or ice_tx_csum() fail, the error path in
ice_xmit_frame_ring() frees the skb, but the 'first' tx_buf still points
to it and is marked as valid (ICE_TX_BUF_SKB).
'next_to_use' remains unchanged, so the potential problem will
likely fix itself when the next packet is transmitted and the tx_buf
gets overwritten. But if there is no next packet and the interface is
brought down instead, ice_clean_tx_ring() -> ice_unmap_and_free_tx_buf()
will find the tx_buf and free the skb for the second time.
The fix is to reset the tx_buf type to ICE_TX_BUF_EMPTY in the error
path, so that ice_unmap_and_free_tx_buf().
Move the initialization of 'first' up, to ensure it's already valid in
case we hit the linearization error path.
The bug was spotted by AI while I had it looking for something else.
It also proposed an initial version of the patch.
I reproduced the bug and tested the fix by adding code to inject
failures, on a build with KASAN.
I looked for similar bugs in related Intel drivers and did not find any.
Affected products
Linux · LinuxWant to know if your infrastructure is exposed to this?
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