CVE-2026-97906

NameCVE-2026-97906
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bootconfig: Fix integer overflow in initrd size check Sashiko reported that in get_boot_config_from_initrd(), a crafted initrd with a huge bootconfig size (such as 0xFFFFFFFF) can cause the pointer arithmetic: data = ((void *)hdr) - size; to wrap around on 32-bit systems (or when pointer subtraction overflows). Because data wraps around, the subsequent bounds check: if ((unsigned long)data < initrd_start) evaluates to false, bypassing the check. The kernel then calls xbc_calc_checksum(data, size), which attempts to read 4GB of memory, hitting unmapped pages and triggering a fatal kernel page fault during early boot. Furthermore, on 64-bit systems with an initrd > 4.29 GB, an unbounded 32-bit size can similarly bypass the initrd_start check. Fix this by: 1. Ensuring the initrd is at least large enough to contain the bootconfig footer and verifying hdr is within the initrd bounds. 2. Checking that size does not exceed XBC_DATA_MAX and does not exceed the available space between initrd_start and hdr before performing pointer subtraction.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)bookworm6.1.176-1vulnerable
bookworm (security)6.1.187-1vulnerable
trixie6.12.107-1vulnerable
trixie (security)6.12.111-1vulnerable
forky7.2.9-1fixed
sid7.2.10-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsource(unstable)7.2.7-1

Notes

https://git.kernel.org/linus/7812d6dab0698001e50e8c2f901e17da3eb6f429 (7.3-rc3)

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