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CVE-2026-53012: nexthop: fix IPv6 route referencing IPv4 nexthop

• 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: 2026-06-24 · updated 2026-10-15
• Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nexthop: fix IPv6 route referencing IPv4 nexthop syzbot reported a panic [1] [2]. When an IPv6 nexthop is replaced with an IPv4 nexthop, the has_v4 flag of all groups containing this nexthop is not updated. This is because nh_group_v4_update is only called when replacing AF_INET to AF_INET6, but the reverse direction (AF_INET6 to AF_INET) is missed. This allows a stale has_v4=false to bypass fib6_check_nexthop, causing IPv6 routes to be attached to groups that effectively contain only AF_INET members. Subsequent route lookups then call nexthop_fib6_nh() which returns NULL for the AF_INET member, leading to a NULL pointer dereference. Fix by calling nh_group_v4_update whenever the family changes, not just AF_INET to AF_INET6. Reproducer: # AF_INET6 blackhole ip -6 nexthop add id 1 blackhole # group with has_v4=false ip nexthop add id 100 group 1 # replace with AF_INET (no -6), has_v4 stays false ip nexthop replace id 1 blackhole # pass stale has_v4 check ip -6 route add 2001:db8::/64 nhid 100 # panic ping -6 2001:db8::1 [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?id=e17283eb2f8dcf3dd9b47fe6f67a95f71faadad0 [2] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?id=8699b6ae54c9f35837d925686208402949e12ef3

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 5.3 before 5.10.258; from 5.11 before 5.15.209; from 5.16 before 6.1.175; from 6.2 before 6.6.141; from 6.7 before 6.12.91; from 6.13 before 6.18.33 — fixed in 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 6.12.91, 6.18.33, 6.6.141

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 6.12.91. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/29c95185ba32b621fbc3800fb86e7dc3edf5c2be
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/613c8f4a501421dd258b07ea614205d4e16ec845
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6275796f22bb382f3e9aa58ed0b4ef7bdad78cb8
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9c2d6770a5f4545a307eb66979bef7656a34d621
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/aaac3bed034239e1d75732211d9b05f30b0b4f35
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ad85961004fd4bd2f31209ac4b07612c6cefb9e7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b3b7e850e1541f0520c4a12ec884255c30427ff6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ceffe81a0be92afc0cd1340bc8ca46559cce9bb4
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html
• https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-457936.html

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