CVE-2026-23293: net: vxlan: fix nd_tbl NULL dereference when IPv6 is disabled

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-03-25 · updated 2026-10-15
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: vxlan: 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. If an IPv6 packet is injected into the interface, route_shortcircuit() is called and a NULL pointer dereference happens on neigh_lookup(). BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000380 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [...] RIP: 0010:neigh_lookup+0x20/0x270 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> vxlan_xmit+0x638/0x1ef0 [vxlan] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x9e/0x2e0 __dev_queue_xmit+0xbee/0x14e0 packet_sendmsg+0x116f/0x1930 __sys_sendto+0x1f5/0x200 __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x12f/0x1590 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Fix this by adding an early check on route_shortcircuit() when protocol is ETH_P_IPV6. Note that ipv6_mod_enabled() cannot be used here because VXLAN can be built-in even when IPv6 is built as a module.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.12 before 5.10.253; from 5.11 before 5.15.203; from 5.16 before 6.1.167; from 6.2 before 6.6.130; from 6.7 before 6.12.77; from 6.13 before 6.18.17 — fixed in 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.77, 6.18.17, 6.19.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.77. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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