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Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-38852

| CVE-2026-52984 MEDIUM
2026-06-24 Linux GHSA-29w2-r4qv-vcrw
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY
5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
5.5 MEDIUM

Local access with low privilege required; netem reorder configuration is an operator prerequisite; impact is availability-only via unbounded kernel queue growth.

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

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

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

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Jul 14, 2026 - 22:04 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Jul 14, 2026 - 16:52 NVD
5.5 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Jun 24, 2026 - 18:02 EUVD
CVE Published
Jun 24, 2026 - 16:28 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5
CVE Published
Jun 24, 2026 - 16:28 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionNVD

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

net/sched: netem: fix queue limit check to include reordered packets

The queue limit check in netem_enqueue() uses q->t_len which only counts packets in the internal tfifo. Packets placed in sch->q by the reorder path (__qdisc_enqueue_head) are not counted, allowing the total queue occupancy to exceed sch->limit under reordering.

Include sch->q.qlen in the limit check.

AnalysisAI

Unbounded queue growth in the Linux kernel's netem (Network Emulator) traffic control subsystem allows a local low-privileged user to exhaust kernel memory and trigger a denial of service. The flaw exists because netem_enqueue() enforces queue depth limits using only q->t_len (packets in the internal tfifo), while packets placed into sch->q via the reorder path (__qdisc_enqueue_head) are silently excluded from that count, allowing total queue occupancy to grow beyond sch->limit without bound. No public exploit has been identified and the EPSS score of 0.18% (8th percentile) places this in the lowest exploitation-probability tier; however, the vulnerability affects a wide range of active stable kernel branches and patched versions are available.

Technical ContextAI

The netem qdisc (network emulator queuing discipline) is a Linux traffic control module invoked via tc(8) to simulate WAN conditions including delay, jitter, packet loss, duplication, and reordering. It is implemented in net/sched/sch_netem.c and maintains two internal data structures: a time-ordered tfifo heap (q->t_len) for scheduling future transmits, and the standard qdisc queue (sch->q) used when packets are reordered and must be injected at the head of the output queue via __qdisc_enqueue_head. The bug is a missing addend in the queue depth comparison: the guard if (q->t_len >= sch->limit) fails to account for sch->q.qlen, meaning the effective queue can grow to (sch->limit + sch->q.qlen), potentially unbounded under continuous reorder load. No CWE is formally assigned; the closest applicable class is CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) or CWE-682 (Incorrect Calculation). Affected products are identified by CPE cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:* across multiple stable branches from 5.4.x through 6.13.

RemediationAI

Apply the vendor-released stable kernel update for the branch in use: upgrade to Linux 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 6.6.141, 6.12.91, 6.18.33, 7.0.10, or 7.1 as appropriate. Commit-level patches for each branch are indexed at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ via the cveorg references above. For systems unable to patch immediately, the most effective compensating control is to ensure no netem qdisc with reordering is configured in production - removing or not deploying the netem qdisc entirely eliminates the vulnerable code path without side effects on non-test workloads. A second control is to restrict CAP_NET_ADMIN capability so that only root can configure traffic control (e.g., disabling unprivileged user namespaces via kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=0 on affected distros), which prevents low-privilege users from creating or modifying qdiscs; note this may break container networking features that rely on user namespaces. Neither workaround substitutes for patching on systems where netem is legitimately required.

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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EUVD-2026-38852 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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