CVE-2026-45966 PUBLISHED

apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 13.05.2026 Published: 27.05.2026 Updated: 27.05.2026

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

apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation

When receiving file descriptors via SCM_RIGHTS, both the socket pointer and the socket's sk pointer can be NULL during socket setup or teardown, causing NULL pointer dereferences in __unix_needs_revalidation().

This is a regression in AppArmor 5.0.0 (kernel 6.17+) where the new __unix_needs_revalidation() function was added without proper NULL checks.

The crash manifests as: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0x0000000000000018 RIP: aa_file_perm+0xb7/0x3b0 (or +0xbe/0x3b0, +0xc0/0x3e0) Call Trace: apparmor_file_receive+0x42/0x80 security_file_receive+0x2e/0x50 receive_fd+0x1d/0xf0 scm_detach_fds+0xad/0x1c0

The function dereferences sock->sk->sk_family without checking if either sock or sock->sk is NULL first.

Add NULL checks for both sock and sock->sk before accessing sk_family.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 88fec3526e84123997ecebd6bb6778eb4ce779b7 to fea017a7f6abe179decf575a2d8464c74edb3964 (excl.)
  • affected from 88fec3526e84123997ecebd6bb6778eb4ce779b7 to e85bc9101afc4202aa2269967ce9d3ffbecd0994 (excl.)
  • affected from 88fec3526e84123997ecebd6bb6778eb4ce779b7 to e2938ad00b21340c0362562dfedd7cfec0554d67 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.17 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.17 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.14 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.4 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References