Linux Kernel up to 6.18.23/6.19.13 br_private.h br_vlan_group null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.23/6.19.13. It has been classified as critical. The affected element is the function br_vlan_group in the library br_private.h. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-43100. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.23/6.19.13 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function br_vlan_group in the library br_private.h. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bridge: guard local VLAN-0 FDB helpers against NULL vlan group When CONFIG_BRIDGE_VLAN_FILTERING is not set, br_vlan_group() and nbp_vlan_group() return NULL (br_private.h stub definitions). The BR_BOOLOPT_FDB_LOCAL_VLAN_0 toggle code is compiled unconditionally and reaches br_fdb_delete_locals_per_vlan_port() and br_fdb_insert_locals_per_vlan_port(), where the NULL vlan group pointer is dereferenced via list_for_each_entry(v, &vg->vlan_list, vlist). The observed crash is in the delete path, triggered when creating a bridge with IFLA_BR_MULTI_BOOLOPT containing BR_BOOLOPT_FDB_LOCAL_VLAN_0 via RTM_NEWLINK. The insert helper has the same bug pattern. Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000056: 0000 [#1] KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000002b0-0x00000000000002b7] RIP: 0010:br_fdb_delete_locals_per_vlan+0x2b9/0x310 Call Trace: br_fdb_toggle_local_vlan_0+0x452/0x4c0 br_toggle_fdb_local_vlan_0+0x31/0x80 net/bridge/br.c:276 br_boolopt_toggle net/bridge/br.c:313 br_boolopt_multi_toggle net/bridge/br.c:364 br_changelink net/bridge/br_netlink.c:1542 br_dev_newlink net/bridge/br_netlink.c:1575 Add NULL checks for the vlan group pointer in both helpers, returning early when there are no VLANs to iterate. This matches the existing pattern used by other bridge FDB functions such as br_fdb_add() and br_fdb_delete().

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-43100 since 05/01/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.18.24 or 6.19.14 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch fb612d436ff0317659e45a91c25fd7d9516f5b1b/ddf0ec2d600e7dad62b89692749534d7900a732a/1979645e1842cb7017525a61a0e0e0beb924d02a 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.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1385). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Microsoft Azure Linux

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 6.19.10
• 6.19.11
• 6.19.12
• 6.19.13

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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