Bug 2492327 (CVE-2026-53012)

Summary: CVE-2026-53012 kernel: nexthop: fix IPv6 route referencing IPv4 nexthop
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. When an IPv6 nexthop is replaced with an IPv4 nexthop, a flag indicating the presence of IPv4 members in nexthop groups is not correctly updated. This can lead to IPv6 routes referencing groups that only contain IPv4 members. A local attacker could exploit this issue by crafting specific nexthop configurations, causing a NULL pointer dereference and ultimately leading to a system panic, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-24 18:05:59 UTC
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