Linux Kernel up to 6.18.32/7.0.9 net dualpi2_change null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.32/7.0.9. This issue affects the function dualpi2_change of the component net. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-52997. There is no available exploit. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.32/7.0.9 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function dualpi2_change of the component net. 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: net/sched: sch_dualpi2: drain both C-queue and L-queue in dualpi2_change() Fix dualpi2_change() to correctly enforce updated limit and memlimit values after a configuration change of the dualpi2 qdisc. Before this patch, dualpi2_change() always attempted to dequeue packets via the root qdisc (C-queue) when reducing backlog or memory usage, and unconditionally assumed that a valid skb will be returned. When traffic classification results in packets being queued in the L-queue while the C-queue is empty, this leads to a NULL skb dereference during limit or memlimit enforcement. This is fixed by first dequeuing from the C-queue path if it is non-empty. Once the C-queue is empty, packets are dequeued directly from the L-queue. Return values from qdisc_dequeue_internal() are checked for both queues. When dequeuing from the L-queue, the parent qdisc qlen and backlog counters are updated explicitly to keep overall qdisc statistics consistent.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-52997 since 06/09/2026. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.18.33 or 7.0.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 86cf2eba2056bcf9c41fba260e599bd95bf9943b/3042add80c2c50bd127d570b83319af612efde65/478ed6b7d2577439c610f91fa8759a4c878a4264 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.

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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
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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