CVE-2026-43086: ipvs: fix NULL deref in ip_vs_add_service error path

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: 2026-05-06 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvs: fix NULL deref in ip_vs_add_service error path When ip_vs_bind_scheduler() succeeds in ip_vs_add_service(), the local variable sched is set to NULL. If ip_vs_start_estimator() subsequently fails, the out_err cleanup calls ip_vs_unbind_scheduler(svc, sched) with sched == NULL. ip_vs_unbind_scheduler() passes the cur_sched NULL check (because svc->scheduler was set by the successful bind) but then dereferences the NULL sched parameter at sched->done_service, causing a kernel panic at offset 0x30 from NULL. Oops: general protection fault, [..] [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000030-0x0000000000000037] RIP: 0010:ip_vs_unbind_scheduler (net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_sched.c:69) Call Trace: <TASK> ip_vs_add_service.isra.0 (net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_ctl.c:1500) do_ip_vs_set_ctl (net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_ctl.c:2809) nf_setsockopt (net/netfilter/nf_sockopt.c:102) [..] Fix by simply not clearing the local sched variable after a successful bind. ip_vs_unbind_scheduler() already detects whether a scheduler is installed via svc->scheduler, and keeping sched non-NULL ensures the error path passes the correct pointer to both ip_vs_unbind_scheduler() and ip_vs_scheduler_put(). While the bug is older, the problem popups in more recent kernels (6.2), when the new error path is taken after the ip_vs_start_estimator() call.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.2.1 before 6.6.136; from 6.7 before 6.12.83; from 6.13 before 6.18.24; from 6.19 before 6.19.14; 6.2, 7.0-rc1, 7.0-rc2, 7.0-rc3, 7.0-rc4, 7.0-rc5 (+2) — fixed in 6.12.83, 6.18.24, 6.19.14, 6.6.136

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.83, 6.18.24, 6.19.14, 6.6.136. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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