Bug 2451220 (CVE-2026-23381)

Summary:	CVE-2026-23381 kernel: net: bridge: fix nd_tbl NULL dereference when IPv6 is disabled
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified	Keywords:	Security
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's network bridging component. When Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is explicitly disabled, a critical data structure for Neighbor Discovery is not properly initialized. A remote attacker could exploit this by sending a specially crafted Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) Neighbor Discovery packet. This could lead to a kernel NULL pointer dereference, causing the system to crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
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Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-03-25 11:05:26 UTC

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: bridge: 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. Then, if neigh_suppress is enabled and an ICMPv6
Neighbor Discovery packet reaches the bridge, br_do_suppress_nd() will
dereference ipv6_stub->nd_tbl which is NULL, passing it to
neigh_lookup(). This causes a kernel NULL pointer dereference.

 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000268
 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
 [...]
 RIP: 0010:neigh_lookup+0x16/0xe0
 [...]
 Call Trace:
  <IRQ>
  ? neigh_lookup+0x16/0xe0
  br_do_suppress_nd+0x160/0x290 [bridge]
  br_handle_frame_finish+0x500/0x620 [bridge]
  br_handle_frame+0x353/0x440 [bridge]
  __netif_receive_skb_core.constprop.0+0x298/0x1110
  __netif_receive_skb_one_core+0x3d/0xa0
  process_backlog+0xa0/0x140
  __napi_poll+0x2c/0x170
  net_rx_action+0x2c4/0x3a0
  handle_softirqs+0xd0/0x270
  do_softirq+0x3f/0x60

Fix this by replacing IS_ENABLED(IPV6) call with ipv6_mod_enabled() in
the callers. This is in essence disabling NS/NA suppression when IPv6 is
disabled.

Comment 1 Alexander B 2026-03-25 15:07:57 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026032543-CVE-2026-23381-378d@gregkh/T