CVE-2026-72046
Linux gve driver header-buffer bug causes packet header corruption and severe throughput loss.
Is CVE-2026-72046 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-72046 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.62% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-72046?
CVE-2026-72046 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-72046?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-72046. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-72046 affect?
CVE-2026-72046 affects Linux kernel (gve driver), Google Cloud VMs using gve, Distributions shipping gve module. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-72046?
Apply kernel/gve vendor patches ASAP; disable HW-GRO/header-split as temporary mitigation.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Network traffic can trigger header-slot misindexing and buffer reuse, causing header corruption, high TCP retransmits, throughput loss and network DoS.
Immediate action required
- affected>= 5e37d8254e7f551dda62e7590e819d69c7491845 and < 84d3753d4bf284ef770ead6dee2270aaabb3ef41
- affected>= 5e37d8254e7f551dda62e7590e819d69c7491845 and < 35267819b25074084130b6a7be18bbaf44d3ae74
- affected>= 5e37d8254e7f551dda62e7590e819d69c7491845 and < 9f8e7f59b0c2f466be74bd923726b0f5496c27ad
- affected>= 5e37d8254e7f551dda62e7590e819d69c7491845 and < d676c9a73bdcd8237425dbb826f2bd1a25c36e40
- affected6.9
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.