Security Resilience

CVE-2026-43441

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 5.18 – 6.1.167

Published
08 May 2026
Modified
16 October 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0068 52th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-43441 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked in the top 48% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: bonding: Fix nd_tbl NULL dereference when IPv6 is disabled When booting with the 'ipv6.disable=1' parameter, the nd_tbl is never initialized because inet6_init() exits before ndisc_init() is called which initializes…

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it. If bonding ARP/NS validation is enabled, an IPv6 NS/NA packet received on a slave can reach bond_validate_na(), which calls bond_has_this_ip6(). That path calls ipv6_chk_addr() and can crash in __ipv6_chk_addr_and_flags(). BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000005d8 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI RIP: 0010:__ipv6_chk_addr_and_flags+0x69/0x170 Call Trace: <IRQ> ipv6_chk_addr+0x1f/0x30 bond_validate_na+0x12e/0x1d0 [bonding] ? __pfx_bond_handle_frame+0x10/0x10 [bonding] bond_rcv_validate+0x1a0/0x450 [bonding] bond_handle_frame+0x5e/0x290 [bonding] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 __netif_receive_skb_core.constprop.0+0x3e8/0xe50 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? update_cfs_rq_load_avg+0x1a/0x240 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? __enqueue_entity+0x5e/0x240 __netif_receive_skb_one_core+0x39/0xa0 process_backlog+0x9c/0x150 __napi_poll+0x30/0x200 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 net_rx_action+0x338/0x3b0 handle_softirqs+0xc9/0x2a0 do_softirq+0x42/0x60 </IRQ> <TASK> __local_bh_enable_ip+0x62/0x70 __dev_queue_xmit+0x2d3/0x1000 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? packet_parse_headers+0x10a/0x1a0 packet_sendmsg+0x10da/0x1700 ? kick_pool+0x5f/0x140 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 ? __queue_work+0x12d/0x4f0 __sys_sendto+0x1f3/0x220 __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x101/0xf80 ? exc_page_fault+0x6e/0x170 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f </TASK> Fix this by checking ipv6_mod_enabled() before dispatching IPv6 packets to bond_na_rcv(). If IPv6 is disabled, return early from bond_rcv_validate() and avoid the path to ipv6_chk_addr().

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
7.0 · 5.18 — 6.1.167 · 6.2 — 6.6.130 · 6.7 — 6.12.78

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References