---
id: CVE-2026-53227
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  net: openvswitch: fix possible kfree_skb of ERR_PTR

  After the patch in the "Fixes" tag, the allocation of the "reply" skb
  can happen either before or after locking the…
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  net: openvswitch: fix possible kfree_skb of ERR_PTR

  After the patch in the "Fixes" tag, the allocation of the "reply" skb
  can happen either before or after locking the…
severity: medium
cvss: 5.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-401
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - 'linux_kernel >= 3.16, < 5.10.259'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.210'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.176'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.143'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.94'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.36'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.13'
  - linux_kernel = 7.1
patched:
  - linux_kernel 7.0.13
published: '2026-06-25'
updated: '2026-07-02'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53227'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0bb5b2dc1b90aa7dd1473fc8c4d813a29255ff8d'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25fdf53698535fe8790237f5a8a9626791429785'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/895d1dd9057cde1687fa0f4286d47ceed0b82997'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/971b1b37774f13acc5add0a2843f8598446b8598'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e248fb2e680deb2bd37bac551b72638fe4938a76'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e3d509a1b71396e1452060dbf84a805fd1c3c549'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ecc55aad3390129a87106841f4b68bf3d70c9264'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ee30dd2909d8b98619f4341c70ec8dc8e155ab02'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
tags:
  - nvd
epss: 0.0013
epssPercentile: 0.02146
ingestedAt: '2026-07-03T13:02:28.070Z'
---

## Overview

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

net: openvswitch: fix possible kfree_skb of ERR_PTR

After the patch in the "Fixes" tag, the allocation of the "reply" skb
can happen either before or after locking the ovs_mutex.

However, error cleanups still follow the classical reversed order,
assuming "reply" is allocated before locking: it is freed after unlocking.

If "reply" allocation happens after locking the mutex and it fails,
"reply" is left with an ERR_PTR, and execution jumps to the correspondent
cleanup stage which will try to free an invalid pointer.

Fix this by setting the pointer to NULL after having saved its error
value.

## Affected

- `linux_kernel >= 3.16, < 5.10.259`
- `linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.210`
- `linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.176`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.143`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.94`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.18.36`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.13`
- `linux_kernel = 7.1`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `linux_kernel 7.0.13`