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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-72049

| EUVDEUVD-2026-59007 HIGH
2026-08-15 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 GHSA-223c-gf67-9794
7.1
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
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Severity by source

Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67) PRIMARY
7.1 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
vuln.today AI
7.1 HIGH

AV:L because AF_NETLINK requires local session access; PR:L because any unprivileged uid suffices; C:H and I:H because AES-128 key recovery enables full decryption and frame forgery via CCM*.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N
SUSE
5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Red Hat
7.0 HIGH
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67).

CVSS VectorVendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:29 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 17, 2026 - 06:22 NVD
7.1 (HIGH)
Patch available
Aug 15, 2026 - 07:20 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 06:21 cve.org
HIGH 7.1
CVE Published
Aug 15, 2026 - 06:21 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ieee802154: admin-gate legacy LLSEC dump operations

In net/ieee802154/netlink.c, the legacy IEEE802154_NL family ops table builds the LLSEC dump entries (LLSEC_LIST_KEY, LLSEC_LIST_DEV, LLSEC_LIST_DEVKEY, LLSEC_LIST_SECLEVEL) with IEEE802154_DUMP() which sets no .flags, so generic netlink runs them ungated. The modern nl802154 family admin-gates the equivalent reads via NL802154_CMD_GET_SEC_KEY and friends with .flags = GENL_ADMIN_PERM.

Any local uid that can open AF_NETLINK / NETLINK_GENERIC can resolve the "802.15.4 MAC" family and dump LLSEC_LIST_KEY on any wpan netdev that has an LLSEC key installed; the dump handler writes the raw 16-byte AES-128 key bytes (IEEE802154_ATTR_LLSEC_KEY_BYTES, copied verbatim from struct ieee802154_llsec_key.key) into the reply. Recovering the AES key compromises 802.15.4 LLSEC link confidentiality and authenticity, since LLSEC uses CCM* and the same key authenticates and encrypts frames.

Impact: any local uid with no capabilities can read the raw 16-byte AES-128 LLSEC key from the kernel keytable on any wpan netdev that has an administrator-installed LLSEC key, by issuing an LLSEC_LIST_KEY dump on the legacy IEEE802154_NL generic-netlink family.

Introduce IEEE802154_DUMP_PRIV() mirroring IEEE802154_DUMP() but setting .flags = GENL_ADMIN_PERM, and use it for the four LLSEC dump entries. LIST_PHY and LIST_IFACE retain IEEE802154_DUMP() because the modern nl802154 family exposes their equivalents to unprivileged readers by design (NL802154_CMD_GET_WPAN_PHY and NL802154_CMD_GET_INTERFACE carry "can be retrieved by unprivileged users" annotations).

AnalysisAI

Raw AES-128 LLSEC key exposure in the Linux kernel's legacy ieee802154 netlink family allows any local user to extract 16-byte cryptographic key material directly from the kernel keytable on systems running IEEE 802.15.4 (wpan) interfaces with link-layer security configured. Because IEEE 802.15.4 LLSEC uses CCM* mode where the same key both encrypts frames and provides message authentication, key disclosure simultaneously breaks confidentiality and authenticity of the entire 802.15.4 wireless network. No confirmed active exploitation and no public exploit identified at time of analysis; EPSS is 0.21% (12th percentile), consistent with the niche hardware requirement.

Technical ContextAI

The Linux kernel implements IEEE 802.15.4 link-layer security (LLSEC) under net/ieee802154/, exposing configuration via two generic netlink families: the legacy IEEE802154_NL family (net/ieee802154/netlink.c) and the modern nl802154 family. The legacy family registers LLSEC dump handlers - LLSEC_LIST_KEY, LLSEC_LIST_DEV, LLSEC_LIST_DEVKEY, LLSEC_LIST_SECLEVEL - using the IEEE802154_DUMP() macro, which sets no .flags on the genl_ops entry. Generic netlink therefore runs these handlers without the GENL_ADMIN_PERM capability check. By contrast, the modern nl802154 family explicitly sets .flags = GENL_ADMIN_PERM on the equivalent NL802154_CMD_GET_SEC_KEY and companion commands. The LLSEC key dump handler copies the raw struct ieee802154_llsec_key.key field (the 16-byte AES-128 key material) verbatim into IEEE802154_ATTR_LLSEC_KEY_BYTES in the netlink reply. LLSEC uses AES-128 in CCM* mode (IEEE 802.15.4-2015), where the same key material governs both authenticated encryption of frames and MAC generation, meaning a single key recovery breaks both properties. CWE is unassigned by NVD but the root cause is a missing authorization check (CWE-862), specifically the absence of GENL_ADMIN_PERM on the legacy family's LLSEC dump operations.

RemediationAI

Update the Linux kernel to a patched stable release: 5.10.261, 5.15.212, 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.97, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, or 7.2-rc1. Patches are available as upstream stable commits at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9c1e0b6d49471a712511d23fc9d06901561135e8 and the companion commits listed in NVD references. Distribution maintainers should backport the IEEE802154_DUMP_PRIV() change to their kernel packages. If immediate patching is not feasible on embedded systems, the most targeted compensating control is to remove all administrator-installed LLSEC keys from wpan netdevs using ieee802154 management tools - this eliminates the exposed secret but disables 802.15.4 link-layer encryption and authentication for the duration, leaving frames in plaintext. A second control is to restrict AF_NETLINK socket creation to privileged processes via seccomp-bpf policies or LSM (SELinux/AppArmor) netlink class rules, but this is broad and may break legitimate netlink consumers. Unloading the ieee802154 kernel module (if not required) removes the attack surface entirely. Least-privilege user environments (no interactive local login for non-admin users) also limit exposure since the attack requires local account access.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Affected

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CVE-2026-72049 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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