# CVE-2026-31531

> Vulnerability · severity: **MEDIUM** (CVSS 5.5).

## Description

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

ipv4: nexthop: allocate skb dynamically in rtm_get_nexthop()

When querying a nexthop object via RTM_GETNEXTHOP, the kernel currently
allocates a fixed-size skb using NLMSG_GOODSIZE. While sufficient for
single nexthops and small Equal-Cost Multi-Path groups, this fixed
allocation fails for large nexthop groups like 512 nexthops.

This results in the following warning splat:

 WARNING: net/ipv4/nexthop.c:3395 at rtm_get_nexthop+0x176/0x1c0, CPU#20: rep/4608
 [...]
 RIP: 0010:rtm_get_nexthop (net/ipv4/nexthop.c:3395)
 [...]
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  rtnetlink_rcv_msg (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6989)
  netlink_rcv_skb (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550)
  netlink_unicast (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1319 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344)
  netlink_sendmsg (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1894)
  ____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:721 net/socket.c:736 net/socket.c:2585)
  ___sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2641)
  __sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2671)
  do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94)
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)
  </TASK>

Fix this by allocating the size dynamically using nh_nlmsg_size() and
using nlmsg_new(), this is consistent with nexthop_notify() behavior. In
addition, adjust nh_nlmsg_size_grp() so it calculates the size needed
based on flags passed. While at it, also add the size of NHA_FDB for
nexthop group size calculation as it was missing too.

This cannot be reproduced via iproute2 as the group size is currently
limited and the command fails as follows:

addattr_l ERROR: message exceeded bound of 1048

## Key facts

- **CVE ID:** CVE-2026-31531
- **Published:** 2026-04-23
- **CVSS severity:** MEDIUM
- **CVSS base score:** 5.5
- **CWE codes:** NVD-CWE-noinfo

## Affected products

- `linux:linux_kernel`

## Primary sources

- NIST NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-31531

## Citation

> AI Analytics. CVE-2026-31531. Retrieved 2026-08-16 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/cve/CVE-2026-31531. Derived from NIST NVD. Licensed CC0.

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