KernelScan.io

HIGH Introduced in 2.6.14

ipvs SyncFlags Validation

CVE-2026-98794

CVSS 7.1 / 10.0 KernelScan AI

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

01

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvs: filter some flags received in the backup server While the IPVS SYNC protocol is not secure by design we can still protect the backup server from messages that can wreak havoc. This commit addresses problems from received connection flags or their combinations. We now drop messages as follows: 1. the NO_CPORT+TEMPLATE combination allows lookups for normal connections to hit template which can break in many ways. While the master does not sync connections with NO_CPORT flag, i.e. before they are established, we still accept NO_CPORT without TEMPLATE. 2. ONE_PACKET: it is not sent by master, so we do not expect it in backup. Before now it was ignored by IP_VS_CONN_F_BACKUP_MASK for protocol v1 while protocol v0 created connections that are not hashed and dropped immediately. Better to apply the IP_VS_CONN_F_BACKUP_MASK also to the flags from v0 messages for consistency with v1.

02

Engine v0.9.0

Risk summary

An attacker on the same layer-2 network as the IPVS sync interface can send crafted multicast sync messages that cause the backup load balancer to misroute or drop connections. This breaks persistence guarantees and disrupts load-balanced services. The attack requires no privileges and no user interaction, only network adjacency to the dedicated sync VLAN.

Affectednet/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_sync.c (IPVS sync daemon)

Vulnerability analysis

The IPVS backup server accepts connection-state sync messages from the master over multicast. The original code did not validate flag combinations in those messages. A malicious or corrupted message carrying both the NO_CPORT and TEMPLATE flags causes normal connection lookups to incorrectly match template entries, breaking persistence and forwarding logic. Similarly, the ONE_PACKET flag — never sent by a legitimate master — creates unhashed connections that are immediately dropped, wasting resources. The fix adds a validation step that rejects messages with these flag combinations and applies the existing backup flag mask consistently to both protocol versions, preventing the backup from acting on malformed sync data.

03

BranchIntroducedFixed inPatch commit
6.122.6.146.12.113f4cd1db7d421
6.182.6.146.18.5655d033324f67
6.62.6.146.6.160d7d33c9efa9d
7.22.6.147.2.1045a93111835c
mainline2.6.147.3f96e91748f63

04

State of the newest release of each Civil Infrastructure Platform SLTS tree, from CIP's own fix records.

CIP treeState
cip/6.12Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 6.12.112-cip33)
cip/6.1Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 6.1.189-cip61)
cip/6.1-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 6.1.189-cip61-rt32)
cip/5.10Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 5.10.271-cip78)
cip/5.10-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 5.10.268-cip77-rt34)
cip/4.19Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.19.325-cip136)
cip/4.19-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.19.325-cip136-rt50)
cip/4.4Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.4.302-cip115)
cip/4.4-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.4.302-cip115-rt63)