CVE-2026-72036: Linux

High severity, CVSS 7.8. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_multiq: Replace direct dequeue call with peek and qdisc_dequeue_peeked multiq_dequeue() takes a packet from a band's child with a direct ->dequeue() call after multiq_peek() peeked it. When the child is non-work-conserving the peek stashes the skb in the child's gso_skb, so the direct dequeue returns a different skb and orphans the stash, desyncing the child's qlen/backlog. With a qfq child reached through a peeking parent (e.g. tbf) this re-enters the child on an emptied list and dereferences NULL, panicking the kernel from softirq on ordinary egress. Take the packet through qdisc_dequeue_peeked(), as sch_prio already does and as sch_red and sch_sfb were just fixed to do. The helper is a no-op when the child has no stash, so a work-conserving child is unaffected.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 2.6.29, before 5.10.261 (fixed in 5.10.261); from 5.11, before 5.15.212 (fixed in 5.15.212); from 5.16, before 6.1.178 (fixed in 6.1.178); from 6.2, before 6.6.145 (fixed in 6.6.145); from 6.7, before 6.12.97 (fixed in 6.12.97); from 6.13, before 6.18.40 (fixed in 6.18.40); …

Published 2026-08-15. Last modified 2026-08-17.