NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel ip6erspan tunnel transmit
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
The Linux kernel from 4.16 is affected by a flaw in the IPv6 ERSPAN tunnel transmit path. The legacy PMTU update treats tunnel metadata as a route and dereferences a NULL output device, which crashes the kernel. A local user without privileges who can create user and network namespaces can trigger it.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06
Description from the CNA
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ip6_gre: remove obsolete ERSPAN PMTU update A tc tunnel_key action can attach a METADATA_IP_TUNNEL dst to an skb, and mirred can redirect it to a native ip6erspan device. The legacy PMTU update in ip6erspan_tunnel_xmit() treats that metadata dst as a route. Since it has no output device, dst_dev(dst)->mtu dereferences NULL. On v7.2 with KASAN, an initial UID/GID 65534 process with CapEff 0 used self-created user and network namespaces to trigger: KASAN: null-ptr-deref RIP: ip6erspan_tunnel_xmit+0x10fc/0x2cc0 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt The update is obsolete. Commit fe1a4ca0a2b7 ("ip6_gre: process toobig in a better way") changed IPv6 GRE Too Big handling to update the underlay route and removed the equivalent block from __gre6_xmit(). ip6_tnl_xmit() then propagates the underlay PMTU to the overlay route. Remove the stale ERSPAN copy and its now-unused dst variable. This eliminates the metadata-dst dereference and keeps ERSPAN aligned with IPv6 GRE PMTU handling.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
Upgrade the Linux kernel to 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.114, 6.18.58, 7.2.11 or 7.3. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, 9 and 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 are affected, and Red Hat lists no fix available for them.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.15.224, 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.114, 6.18.58, 7.2.11, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-23 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-99041
- 2026-10-23 Alias added: GHSA-p22x-mpcm-2h5h
- 2026-10-29 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-29 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/Linux@2e151c74bcc53e3ed313bd1c21b0d5bb442edbc0, Linux/[email protected], Linux/[email protected] +1 · CNA
- 2026-10-30 2 new references · CNA
References
Other 7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2e151c74bcc53e3ed313bd1c21b0d5bb442edbc0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ba72ed1c8476ce68eb7152dfcbc5330cefcbaa91
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b14a682ad7d45345701e08f9279d483a1da8b36c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f5b143f4cd3fb7673df8d727550478a4b762908a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2d06cb25a497d3a7034ef9d172626c2d6620a0f1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8f27260b989f488760289276377db24fbfb20bfa
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8bc60db48e8cba35488bbd6e1f94aa990afa275a
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Sources
- CVE-2026-99041 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-99041 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-p22x-mpcm-2h5h · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-99041 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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