CVE-2026-74678

net: usb: ax88179_178a: fix skb leak in ax88179_tx_fixup()

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: August 22, 2026 at 03:32 PM UTC
Updated: October 16, 2026 at 08:17 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: usb: ax88179_178a: fix skb leak in ax88179_tx_fixup() When the interface has NETIF_F_SG enabled and skb_linearize() fails in ax88179_tx_fixup(), the function returns NULL without freeing the skb. usbnet_start_xmit() treats a NULL return from tx_fixup() as a drop (info->flags does not set FLAG_MULTI_PACKET for this driver), jumping to the "drop" label where it does `if (skb) dev_kfree_skb_any(skb)`. Because tx_fixup() returned NULL, the local skb variable in usbnet_start_xmit() is NULL, so the original skb is never freed — a memory leak on every TX frame whose linearization fails (i.e. under memory pressure). Free the skb before returning, matching the error handling already used for the pskb_expand_head() failure path in the same function.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

16b1c4e01c89ba07367461e0bc4cb84993c2d0275.17
Vendor states this is fixed in 1c63303659a2264bd55d9813df74cb4caeed5922 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 1f428e30947395d9b9aacee03e25a4e6cfcad7a4 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2be5091fa693b9119ad25a8bb8c149d236a23ade (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4039cd807a5a46dc5f7618fffae926b8ad8455eb (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 58733b1dd46bb231d9d279c132a20ee46da1b664 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 83a765cbd7b4d11b0b9fa1bb9d941ae911a2159b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.17 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.183 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.104 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.45 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.152 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.1.9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.5HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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