Bug 2502879 (CVE-2026-64190)

Summary: CVE-2026-64190 kernel: net: team: fix NULL pointer dereference in team_xmit during mode change
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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 team driver. A local attacker with CAP_NET_ADMIN capabilities could exploit a race condition during a team device mode change. This occurs when the __team_change_mode() function clears internal operation pointers before safely restoring them, while the team_xmit() function concurrently attempts to transmit data. This can lead to a NULL pointer dereference, causing the kernel to crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-20 17:03:12 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: team: fix NULL pointer dereference in team_xmit during mode change

__team_change_mode() clears team->ops with memset() before restoring
safe dummy handlers via team_adjust_ops(). A concurrent team_xmit()
running under RCU on another CPU can read team->ops.transmit during
this window and call a NULL function pointer, crashing the kernel.

The race requires a mode change (CAP_NET_ADMIN) concurrent with
transmit on the team device.

 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
 Oops: 0010 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI
 RIP: 0010:0x0
 Call Trace:
  team_xmit (drivers/net/team/team_core.c:1853)
  dev_hard_start_xmit (net/core/dev.c:3904)
  __dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4871)
  packet_sendmsg (net/packet/af_packet.c:3109)
  __sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2265)

The original code assumed that no ports means no traffic, so mode
changes could freely memset()/memcpy() the ops.  AF_PACKET with
forced carrier breaks that assumption.

Prevent the race instead of making it safe: replace memset()/memcpy()
with per-field updates that never touch transmit or receive.  Those
two handlers are managed solely by team_adjust_ops(), which already
installs dummies when tx_en_port_count == 0 (always true during mode
change since no ports are present).  WRITE_ONCE/READ_ONCE prevent
store/load tearing on the handler pointers.

synchronize_net() before exit_op() drains in-flight readers that may
still reference old mode state from before port removal switched the
handlers to dummies.
Comment 1 TEJ RATHI 2026-07-21 05:05:26 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026072051-CVE-2026-64190-9dfc@gregkh/T