CVE-2026-80988: Linux

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: NTB: ntb_transport: Fail TX enqueue when the QP link is down Commit f195a1a6fe41 ("ntb: Drop packets when qp link is down") meant to make ntb_transport_tx_enqueue() drop packets submitted while the QP link is down, but it only returns 0 without consuming the packet. Zero means success by this function's contract, so ntb_netdev reports NETDEV_TX_OK and forgets the skb: nothing queued it, nothing frees it, and it leaks, one skb for every transmit racing a link-down. Return -ENOLINK instead, restoring the contract that a non-zero return leaves the buffer owned by the caller. With the preceding patch, ntb_netdev frees the skb on non-retryable enqueue failures and returns NETDEV_TX_OK, so a packet racing with link-down is dropped without leaking or entering a busy retry loop.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 5.10.195, before 5.10.270 (fixed in 5.10.270); from 5.15.132, before 5.15.221 (fixed in 5.15.221); from 6.1.53, before 6.1.188 (fixed in 6.1.188); from 4.14.326, before 4.15 (fixed in 4.15); from 4.19.295, before 4.20 (fixed in 4.20); from 5.4.257, before 5.5 (fixed in 5.5); …

Published 2026-09-11. Last modified 2026-09-14.