Upstream information

CVE-2026-99281 at MITRE

Description

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

tun: Require CAP_NET_ADMIN to attach to an ownerless device

Twenty years ago I made creating a tuntap device require CAP_NET_ADMIN
in commit ca6bb5d7ab22 ("[NET]: Require CAP_NET_ADMIN to create tuntap
devices.")

The idea was to allow the permissions on /dev/net/tun to be relaxed to
0666 and thus allow owners of tun devices assigned with TUNSETOWNER to
actually open it and get at their devices.

What we missed at the time was that persistent devices with *no* owner
were already essentially world-consumable, and anyone who could open
the device node could also attach to those.

Even then, using persistent devices with no explicitly set owner - on
the (false) presumption that CAP_NET_ADMIN would be required to open
them - wasn't an egregious userspace bug. There are cases where it does
make sense to separate the creation/configuration of the netdevice, from
the process which shovels packets into it.

Since then, TUNSETGROUP was added a year later in commit 8c644623fe7e
("[NET]: Allow group ownership of TUN/TAP devices."). Its commit message
noted that if both uid and gid are set, both have to match (in itself a
bizarre choice) - but still not that with *neither* set, no permission
at all was required.

Then in 2012 commit c8d68e6be1c3 ("tuntap: multiqueue support") allowed
new queues to be attached to a device from the moment of its creation,
with no way for userspace to close the race between creation and a
subsequent TUNSET{OWNER,GROUP}.

In 2024, commit 3ca459eaba1bf ("tun: fix group permission check") tried
to fix things to be saner: only require the user *or* the group to
match, in line with standard POSIX permissions, and require
CAP_NET_ADMIN if neither the user nor group authorised the access
(although it put the CAP_NET_ADMIN check first, and would wrongly have
reported the capability as having been used even when it was not).

That fix was reverted in commit a70c7b3cbc06 ("tun: revert fix group
permission check") due to allegedly causing a regression in an selinux
test suite which *expected* the attachment to succeed when authorised
by none of user, group, nor CAP_NET_ADMIN:
https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/CAFqZXNtkCBT4f+PwyVRmQGoT3p1eVa01fCG_aNtpt6dakXncUg@mail.gmail.com/

We should not break UAPI. But we don't have to consider an selinux test
case which deliberately exercises a security flaw to be UAPI worth
preserving either. To which end, I have fixed it in selinux-testsuite
commit b2f894f0016b ("tests/tun_tap: set an owner on the device for the
relabel tests").

So: fix the lack of CAP_NET_ADMIN check on devices which *haven't* been
assigned an owner or group, while leaving the weird tun ownership model
as it was (user *and* group have to match, if both are set). If someone
still wants to fix the latter (which wasn't actually the reason the
previous attempt was reverted), they can do it under separate cover.

Permit attaching to an existing device only if an owner and/or group was
set and the caller matches all that were set, or if the caller has
CAP_NET_ADMIN. The only behavioural change is that a device with no
owner or group now requires CAP_NET_ADMIN to attach - precisely the
loophole we want to close.

And put the CAP_NET_ADMIN check in the right place this time.

SUSE information

Overall state of this security issue: Pending

This issue is currently rated as having important severity.

CVSS v3 Scores
CVSS detail SUSE
Base Score 7.8
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack Vector Local
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required Low
User Interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact High
Integrity Impact High
Availability Impact High
CVSSv3 Version 3.1

Note from the SUSE Security Team on the kernel-default package

SUSE will no longer fix all CVEs in the Linux Kernel anymore, but declare some bug classes as won't fix. Please refer to TID 21496 for more details.

SUSE Bugzilla entry: 1289700 [NEW]

No SUSE Security Announcements cross referenced.


Status of this issue by product and package

Please note that this evaluation state might be work in progress, incomplete or outdated. Also information for service packs in the LTSS phase is only included for issues meeting the LTSS criteria. If in doubt, feel free to contact us for clarification. The updates are grouped by state of their lifecycle. SUSE product lifecycles are documented on the lifecycle page.

Product(s) Source package State
Products under general support and receiving all security fixes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP7 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for NVIDIA 16.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for NVIDIA 16.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for NVIDIA 16.1 kernel-source-nvidia Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.2 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Micro 6.2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Micro Extras 6.0 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Micro Extras 6.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Micro Extras 6.0 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Micro Extras 6.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Micro Extras 6.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP7 kernel-source-rt Affected
openSUSE Leap 16.0 kernel-source Affected
openSUSE Leap 16.1 kernel-source Affected
openSUSE Leap 16.1 kernel-source-nvidia Affected
Products under Long Term Service Pack support and receiving important and critical security fixes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS EXTREME CORE kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 LTSS EXTREME CORE kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 kernel-source Affected
Products past their end of life and not receiving proactive updates anymore.
SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.0 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP5 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS kernel-default Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.0 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.1 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.2 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 kernel-source Affected
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP4 kernel-source-rt Affected
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP5 kernel-source-rt Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.3 kernel-source Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.4 kernel-source Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.4 kernel-source-rt Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-source Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.5 kernel-source-rt Affected
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-source Affected


SUSE Timeline for this CVE

CVE page created: Mon Nov 9 17:54:40 2026
CVE page last modified: Tue Nov 10 14:00:14 2026