Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-74598

critical Nessus Plugin ID 338906

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- ipv6: fix Route Information option length validation rt6_route_rcv() validates the Route Information option (RFC 4191) length against the prefix length, but both checks are off by one. rinfo->length is the ND option length in units of 8 octets and it *includes* the 8-byte option header, so an option carrying N bytes of prefix has length == 1 + N/8. RFC 4191 section 2.3 requires length 3 when Prefix Length is greater than 64, and 2 or 3 when it is greater than 0. The code accepts length >= 2 and length >= 1 respectively. ipv6_addr_prefix() then copies prefix_len/8 bytes out of rinfo->prefix, so a Router Advertisement with (prefix_len=128, length=2) or (prefix_len=64, length=1) makes the kernel read up to 8 bytes past the end of the option. Those bytes end up in the prefix of the route that gets installed, so they are visible to userspace: # RA with a Route Information option (prefix_len=128, length=2) # followed by a source link-layer address option, 01 01 de ad be ef ca fe $ ip -6 route show 2001:db8:dead:beef:101:dead:beef:cafe via fe80::1234 dev veth0 proto ra ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ the next option, read out of bounds When the Route Information option is the last one in the packet, those eight bytes come from the skb tail room instead. Reject the option lengths RFC 4191 does not allow.
(CVE-2026-74598)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-74598

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 338906

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_74598.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/22/2026

Updated: 8/22/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7

Percentile: 98.19

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-74598

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.8

Temporal Score: 9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/22/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-74598