NVD Vulnerability Detail
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CVE-2026-46132
Summary

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

net: rtnetlink: zero ifla_vf_broadcast to avoid stack infoleak in rtnl_fill_vfinfo

rtnl_fill_vfinfo() declares struct ifla_vf_broadcast on the stack
without initialisation:

struct ifla_vf_broadcast vf_broadcast;

The struct contains a single fixed 32-byte field:

/* include/uapi/linux/if_link.h */
struct ifla_vf_broadcast {
__u8 broadcast[32];
};

The function then copies dev->broadcast into it using dev->addr_len
as the length:

memcpy(vf_broadcast.broadcast, dev->broadcast, dev->addr_len);

On Ethernet devices (the overwhelming majority of SR-IOV NICs)
dev->addr_len is 6, so only the first 6 bytes of broadcast[] are
written. The remaining 26 bytes retain whatever was previously on
the kernel stack. The full struct is then handed to userspace via:

nla_put(skb, IFLA_VF_BROADCAST,
sizeof(vf_broadcast), &vf_broadcast)

leaking up to 26 bytes of uninitialised kernel stack per VF per
RTM_GETLINK request, repeatable.

The other vf_* structs in the same function are explicitly zeroed
for exactly this reason - see the memset() calls for ivi,
vf_vlan_info, node_guid and port_guid a few lines above.
vf_broadcast was simply missed when it was added.

Reachability: any unprivileged local process can open AF_NETLINK /
NETLINK_ROUTE without capabilities and send RTM_GETLINK with an
IFLA_EXT_MASK attribute carrying RTEXT_FILTER_VF. The kernel walks
each VF and emits IFLA_VF_BROADCAST, leaking 26 bytes of stack per
VF per request. Stack residue at this call site can include return
addresses and transient sensitive data; KASAN with stack
instrumentation, or KMSAN, will flag the nla_put() when reproduced.

Zero the on-stack struct before the partial memcpy, matching the
existing pattern used for the other vf_* structs in the same
function.

Publication Date May 28, 2026, 7:16 p.m.
Registration Date May 29, 2026, 4:12 a.m.
Last Update May 28, 2026, 10:44 p.m.
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