CVE-2026-90146: 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: bpf, xdp: move offload check into dev_xdp_install() bpf_xdp_link_update() calls dev_xdp_install() directly and skips dev_xdp_attach(), so the checks in dev_xdp_attach() do not run. A user can make an XDP link with a normal program and then swap in an offloaded or device-bound program with BPF_LINK_UPDATE, which puts it on the software path. dev_xdp_install() is the one place all three paths go through: "ip link set xdp" and BPF_LINK_CREATE reach it via dev_xdp_attach(), and BPF_LINK_UPDATE calls it directly. So move the program checks (offloaded, bound to another device, device-bound in generic mode, native vs generic, DEVMAP and CPUMAP) there, and keep only the netlink-flag check (XDP_FLAGS_UPDATE_IF_NOEXIST) in dev_xdp_attach().

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 5.9, before 6.18.52 (fixed in 6.18.52); from 6.19, before 7.2.6 (fixed in 7.2.6)

Published 2026-09-17. Last modified 2026-09-18.