Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4 ip6t_rpfilter ip6t_rpfilter.c rpfilter_mt null pointer dereference

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
7.0	$0-$5k	1.86

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4. This impacts the function rpfilter_mt of the file net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6t_rpfilter.c of the component ip6t_rpfilter. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-98379. The attack may be launched remotely. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.3-rc4. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is the function rpfilter_mt of the file net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6t_rpfilter.c of the component ip6t_rpfilter. The manipulation 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 confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: ip6t_rpfilter: reject routes without inet6_dev ip6_route_lookup() can return an error-free route whose rt6i_idev is NULL. Lowering an external nexthop device's MTU below IPV6_MIN_MTU tears down its inet6_dev while fib6_ifdown() leaves routes using nexthop objects in the FIB. An unprivileged user can construct this state with rtnetlink in a private user and network namespace, then trigger a NULL dereference through an IPv6 rpfilter lookup: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] RIP: rpfilter_mt (net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6t_rpfilter.c:75) Call Trace: ip6t_do_table (net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6_tables.c:316) nf_hook_slow (net/netfilter/core.c:619) ipv6_rcv (net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:351) __netif_receive_skb_one_core (net/core/dev.c:6216) process_backlog (net/core/dev.c:6680) __napi_poll (net/core/dev.c:7739) net_rx_action (net/core/dev.c:7959) handle_softirqs (kernel/softirq.c:622) do_softirq.part.0 (kernel/softirq.c:523) __local_bh_enable_ip (kernel/softirq.c:450) __dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4913) packet_sendmsg (net/packet/af_packet.c:3139) __sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2252) __x64_sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2259) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121) Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt Reject routes without an inet6_dev immediately after lookup. Such routes are not eligible for reverse-path filtering, and the check protects all later rt6i_idev dereferences.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-98379 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/09/2026).

Upgrading to version 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.112, 6.18.55, 7.2.9 or 7.3-rc5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f4de78756b0fddbd125b2b1b77c74f2eccc8e977/1681ab6dd1271f2f36047490793b78b1848bbcc9/65487e9e99431ffcf05024a817f51ee4e3bd9b47/f49da48bd679cfee646d6a40dd02b1933de577d1/290c96e5d9471d1ded9ab1e8ffbb04f6ee7b0f40/eafe081ea77d25b5c8e601680671b4ecb4520e7d/3a7384bc2e66217c9a01a392281334f4423740a0/1b9b5323725e458906c7620a3bc10398b51ad954 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-95534). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.270
• 5.15.221
• 6.1.188
• 6.6.157
• 6.12.111
• 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
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52
• 6.18.53
• 6.18.54
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.2.8
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2
• 7.3-rc3
• 7.3-rc4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 7.3
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.0

VulDB Base Score: 7.3
VulDB Temp Score: 7.0
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Null pointer dereference
CWE: CWE-476 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 5.10.271/5.15.222/6.1.189/6.6.158/6.12.112/6.18.55/7.2.9/7.3-rc5
Patch: f4de78756b0fddbd125b2b1b77c74f2eccc8e977/1681ab6dd1271f2f36047490793b78b1848bbcc9/65487e9e99431ffcf05024a817f51ee4e3bd9b47/f49da48bd679cfee646d6a40dd02b1933de577d1/290c96e5d9471d1ded9ab1e8ffbb04f6ee7b0f40/eafe081ea77d25b5c8e601680671b4ecb4520e7d/3a7384bc2e66217c9a01a392281334f4423740a0/1b9b5323725e458906c7620a3bc10398b51ad954

Timelineinfo

09/25/2026 CVE reserved
10/09/2026 +14 days Advisory disclosed
10/09/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
10/09/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-98379 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-98379
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-415754
EUVD: 🔒

Entryinfo

Created: 10/09/2026 10:06
Updated: 10/09/2026 11:52
Changes: 10/09/2026 10:06 (60), 10/09/2026 11:52 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Discussion

Do you know our Splunk app?

Download it now for free!