Linux Kernel up to 7.0.9 bpf dev null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.174/6.6.140/6.12.90/6.18.32/7.0.9. This affects an unknown part of the component bpf. Such manipulation of the argument dev leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-53111. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.174/6.6.140/6.12.90/6.18.32/7.0.9. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block of the component bpf. The manipulation of the argument dev with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: test_run: Fix the null pointer dereference issue in bpf_lwt_xmit_push_encap The bpf_lwt_xmit_push_encap helper needs to access skb_dst(skb)->dev to calculate the needed headroom: err = skb_cow_head(skb, len + LL_RESERVED_SPACE(skb_dst(skb)->dev)); But skb->_skb_refdst may not be initialized when the skb is set up by bpf_prog_test_run_skb function. Executing bpf_lwt_push_ip_encap function in this scenario will trigger null pointer dereference, causing a kernel crash as Yinhao reported: [ 105.186365] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [ 105.186382] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 105.186388] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 105.186393] PGD 121d3d067 P4D 121d3d067 PUD 106c83067 PMD 0 [ 105.186404] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 105.186412] CPU: 3 PID: 3250 Comm: poc Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.19.0-rc5 #1 [ 105.186423] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 105.186427] RIP: 0010:bpf_lwt_push_ip_encap+0x1eb/0x520 [ 105.186443] Code: 0f 84 de 01 00 00 0f b7 4a 04 66 85 c9 0f 85 47 01 00 00 31 c0 5b 5d 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e c3 cc cc cc cc 48 8b 73 58 48 83 e6 fe 8b 36 0f b7 be ec 00 00 00 0f b7 b6 e6 00 00 00 01 fe 83 e6 f0 [ 105.186449] RSP: 0018:ffffbb0e0387bc50 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 105.186455] RAX: 000000000000004e RBX: ffff94c74e036500 RCX: ffff94c74874da00 [ 105.186460] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff94c74e036500 [ 105.186463] RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: 0000000000000002 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 105.186467] R10: ffffbb0e0387bd50 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffbb0e0387bc98 [ 105.186471] R13: 0000000000000014 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000002 [ 105.186484] FS: 00007f166aa4d680(0000) GS:ffff94c8b7780000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 105.186490] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 105.186494] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000015eade001 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [ 105.186499] PKRU: 55555554 [ 105.186502] Call Trace: [ 105.186507] [ 105.186513] bpf_lwt_xmit_push_encap+0x2b/0x40 [ 105.186522] bpf_prog_a75eaad51e517912+0x41/0x49 [ 105.186536] ? kvm_clock_get_cycles+0x18/0x30 [ 105.186547] ? ktime_get+0x3c/0xa0 [ 105.186554] bpf_test_run+0x195/0x320 [ 105.186563] ? bpf_test_run+0x10f/0x320 [ 105.186579] bpf_prog_test_run_skb+0x2f5/0x4f0 [ 105.186590] __sys_bpf+0x69c/0xa40 [ 105.186603] __x64_sys_bpf+0x1e/0x30 [ 105.186611] do_syscall_64+0x59/0x110 [ 105.186620] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0xe0 [ 105.186649] RIP: 0033:0x7f166a97455d Temporarily add the setting of skb->_skb_refdst before bpf_test_run to resolve the issue.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-53111 since 06/09/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.1.175, 6.6.141, 6.12.91, 6.18.33 or 7.0.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5c8d1f91fc4898d79f29d79c1a6f7c2b3ee66fb0/c7ad31fb948fdd4905263f4324160682c3fa7bc6/599905c3f10bb83e6e6881d5a7f5cea5df07dc23/5500913516e071dbe23e5a404c861dd2d82c9589/94f95328b9070909b5b875c647b17a11d3d85567/972787479ee73006fddb5e59ab5c8e733810ff42 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

• 6.1.174
• 6.6.140
• 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
• 6.12.12
• 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
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 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
• 6.12.77
• 6.12.78
• 6.12.79
• 6.12.80
• 6.12.81
• 6.12.82
• 6.12.83
• 6.12.84
• 6.12.85
• 6.12.86
• 6.12.87
• 6.12.88
• 6.12.89
• 6.12.90
• 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/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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