CVE-2026-98379

What the bug is

ip6_route_lookup() can return an error-free route whose rt6i_idev is NULL. Lowering an external nexthop device's MTU below IPV6_MIN_MTU tears down its inet6_dev while fib6_ifdown() leaves routes using nexthop objects in the FIB. An unprivileged user can construct this state with rtnetlink in a private user and network namespace, then trigger a NULL dereference through an IPv6 rpfilter lookup: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] RIP: rpfilter_mt (net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6t_rpfilter.c:75) Call Trace: ip6t_do_table (net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6_tables.c:316) nf_hook_slow (net/netfilter/core.c:619) ipv6_rcv (net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:351) __netif_receive_skb_one_core (net/core/dev.c:6216) process_backlog (net/core/dev.c:6680) __napi_poll (net/core/dev.c:7739) net_rx_action (net/core/dev.c:7959) handle_softirqs (kernel/softirq.c:622) do_softirq.part.0 (kernel/softirq.c:523) __local_bh_enable_ip (kernel/softirq.c:450) __dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4913) packet_sendmsg (net/packet/af_packet.c:3139) __sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2252) __x64_sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2259) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121) Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt Reject routes without an inet6_dev immediately after lookup. Such routes are not eligible for reverse-path filtering, and the check protects all later rt6i_idev dereferences.

Where it lives

The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.

net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6t_rpfilter.c

What this is

NETFILTERMAINTAINERS section matched on net/*/netfilter/ · netfilter-devel@vger.kernel.org · Maintained

Kernel module

ip6t_rpfilter

Check it on the machine

grep -wE 'CONFIG_IP6_NF_MATCH_RPFILTER|CONFIG_NETFILTER' /boot/config-$(uname -r)

Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.

lsmod | grep -w ip6t_rpfilter

Prints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian builds this as a loadable module. Every release below compiles it as a module on every flavour, so whether the code is in the running kernel depends on whether that module is loaded.

• bookworm, trixie, forky, sidm

m

a loadable module on every flavour - check lsmod, can be blacklisted

Build switches

CONFIG_IP6_NF_MATCH_RPFILTER, CONFIG_NETFILTER

Reads as

all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.

From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published

2026-10-09 (10 days ago)source

CVSS

no vector published, unrated

Attack vector

not published

EPSS

0.16%, higher than 5.3% of all CVEssource

CISA KEV

not listedthe KEV catalogue

Debian urgency

not yet assignedsource

Subsystem

net/ipv6

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

Introduced	Fixed in	Commit
3.3	5.10.271	f4de78756b0f
3.3	5.15.222	1681ab6dd127
3.3	6.1.189	65487e9e9943
3.3	6.6.158	f49da48bd679
3.3	6.12.112	290c96e5d947
3.3	6.18.55	eafe081ea77d
3.3	7.2.9	3a7384bc2e66
3.3	7.3	1b9b5323725e

Debian advisories