CVE-2026-23300

About vulnerability

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

net: ipv6: fix panic when IPv4 route references loopback IPv6 nexthop

When a standalone IPv6 nexthop object is created with a loopback device (e.g., “ip -6 nexthop add id 100 dev lo”), fib6_nh_init() misclassifies it as a reject route. This is because nexthop objects have no destination prefix (fc_dst=::), causing fib6_is_reject() to match any loopback nexthop. The reject path skips fib_nh_common_init(), leaving nhc_pcpu_rth_output unallocated. If an IPv4 route later references this nexthop, __mkroute_output() dereferences NULL nhc_pcpu_rth_output and panics.

Simplify the check in fib6_nh_init() to only match explicit reject routes (RTF_REJECT) instead of using fib6_is_reject(). The loopback promotion heuristic in fib6_is_reject() is handled separately by ip6_route_info_create_nh(). After this change, the three cases behave as follows:

1. Explicit reject route (“ip -6 route add unreachable 2001:db8::/64”): RTF_REJECT is set, enters reject path, skips fib_nh_common_init(). No behavior change.

2. Implicit loopback reject route (“ip -6 route add 2001:db8::/32 dev lo”): RTF_REJECT is not set, takes normal path, fib_nh_common_init() is called. ip6_route_info_create_nh() still promotes it to reject afterward. nhc_pcpu_rth_output is allocated but unused, which is harmless.

3. Standalone nexthop object (“ip -6 nexthop add id 100 dev lo”): RTF_REJECT is not set, takes normal path, fib_nh_common_init() is called. nhc_pcpu_rth_output is properly allocated, fixing the crash when IPv4 routes reference this nexthop.

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS

Affected packages:

kernel @ 5.14.0 (+5 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.