In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: null-check fib6_node before accessing in __ip6_del_rt_siblings() syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref in __ip6_del_rt_siblings() [0]. The stack trace hinted towards…

Overview

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

ipv6: null-check fib6_node before accessing in __ip6_del_rt_siblings()

syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref in __ip6_del_rt_siblings() [0].

The stack trace hinted towards a null dereference of rt->fib6_node when fn->leaf is accessed in __ip6_del_rt_siblings(). With RTNL_FLAG_DOIT_UNLOCKED set, inet6_rtm_delroute() operations run concurrently without acquiring the RTNL lock. In ip6_route_del(), the route lookup happens under rcu_read_lock() without acquiring table->tb6_lock.

Between ip6_route_del() looking up the route and __ip6_del_rt_siblings() acquiring table->tb6_lock, another thread can modify the routing table. For example, when an ECMP route is replaced via RTM_NEWROUTE with NLM_F_REPLACE, fib6_add_rt2node() unlinks all old siblings and sets iter->fib6_node = NULL. A reproducer was found that triggers this [1].

Add a check to ensure rt->fib6_node is non-null before accessing it.

[0] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000020-0x0000000000000027] RIP: 0010:__ip6_del_rt_siblings+0x31e/0x7c0 net/ipv6/route.c:4056 Call Trace: <TASK> ip6_route_del+0x1054/0x1110 net/ipv6/route.c:4232 inet6_rtm_delroute+0x5d7/0x6d0 net/ipv6/route.c:5669 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x802/0xc00 net/core/rtnetlink.c:7132 netlink_rcv_skb+0x226/0x4a0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2556 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1319 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x7f5/0x990 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1345 netlink_sendmsg+0x813/0xb40 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1900 sock_sendmsg_nosec+0x13a/0x180 net/socket.c:800 __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:815 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0x565/0x870 net/socket.c:2713 ___sys_sendmsg+0x2a5/0x360 net/socket.c:2767 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2799 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2804 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2802 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x1b7/0x290 net/socket.c:2802 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:61 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x166/0x520 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:84 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f </TASK>

[1] https://gist.github.com/NamanGulati/0766a1159b6ca61928faaf87425ff899

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

Vendor advisories

• Red Hat VEX · Moderate · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 · updated 2026-10-17 · vex