Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 7.0-rc2. This issue affects the function inet6_init. Performing a manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-23381. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0-rc2. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function inet6_init. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: bridge: fix nd_tbl NULL dereference when IPv6 is disabled When booting with the 'ipv6.disable=1' parameter, the nd_tbl is never initialized because inet6_init() exits before ndisc_init() is called which initializes it. Then, if neigh_suppress is enabled and an ICMPv6 Neighbor Discovery packet reaches the bridge, br_do_suppress_nd() will dereference ipv6_stub->nd_tbl which is NULL, passing it to neigh_lookup(). This causes a kernel NULL pointer dereference. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000268 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [...] RIP: 0010:neigh_lookup+0x16/0xe0 [...] Call Trace: <IRQ> ? neigh_lookup+0x16/0xe0 br_do_suppress_nd+0x160/0x290 [bridge] br_handle_frame_finish+0x500/0x620 [bridge] br_handle_frame+0x353/0x440 [bridge] __netif_receive_skb_core.constprop.0+0x298/0x1110 __netif_receive_skb_one_core+0x3d/0xa0 process_backlog+0xa0/0x140 __napi_poll+0x2c/0x170 net_rx_action+0x2c4/0x3a0 handle_softirqs+0xd0/0x270 do_softirq+0x3f/0x60 Fix this by replacing IS_ENABLED(IPV6) call with ipv6_mod_enabled() in the callers. This is in essence disabling NS/NA suppression when IPv6 is disabled.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-23381 since 01/13/2026. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.1.167, 6.6.130, 6.12.77, 6.18.17, 6.19.7 or 7.0-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 7a894eb5de246d79f13105c55a67381039a24d44/a12cdaa3375f0bd3c8f4e564be7c143529abfe5b/aa73deb3b6b730ec280d45b3f423bfa9e17bc122/33dec6f10777d5a8f71c0a200f690da5ae3c2e55/20ef5c25422f97dd09d751e5ae6c18406cdc78e6/e5e890630533bdc15b26a34bb8e7ef539bdf1322 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.166
• 6.6.129
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
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• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
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• 6.12.30
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• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
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• 6.12.59
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• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 7.0-rc1
• 7.0-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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