# CVE-2025-68776: net/hsr: fix NULL pointer dereference in prp_get_untagged_frame()

> A missing null check in the Linux kernel HSR protocol handler allows remote attackers to cause a system crash via crafted network packets.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-74468, BELL-CVE-2025-68776, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68776, GHSA-66w8-w3wx-5248, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-68776, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68776, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68776, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68776, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68776, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68776

## What is CVE-2025-68776?

CVE-2025-68776 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 13 Jan 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

net/hsr: fix NULL pointer dereference in prp_get_untagged_frame()

prp_get_untagged_frame() calls __pskb_copy() to create frame->skb_std
but doesn't check if the allocation failed. If __pskb_copy() returns
NULL, skb_clone() is called with a NULL pointer, causing a crash:

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc000000000f: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000078-0x000000000000007f]
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5625 Comm: syz.1.18 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full)
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:skb_clone+0xd7/0x3a0 net/core/skbuff.c:2041
Code: 03 42 80 3c 20 00 74 08 4c 89 f7 e8 23 29 05 f9 49 83 3e 00 0f 85 a0 01 00 00 e8 94 dd 9d f8 48 8d 6b 7e 49 89 ee 49 c1 ee 03 <43> 0f b6 04 26 84 c0 0f 85 d1 01 00 00 44 0f b6 7d 00 41 83 e7 0c
RSP: 0018:ffffc9000d00f200 EFLAGS: 00010207
RAX: ffffffff892235a1 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffff88803372a480
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000820 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: 000000000000007e R08: ffffffff8f7d0f77 R09: 1ffffffff1efa1ee
R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffffbfff1efa1ef R12: dffffc0000000000
R13: 0000000000000820 R14: 000000000000000f R15: ffff88805144cc00
FS:  0000555557f6d500(0000) GS:ffff88808d72f000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000555581d35808 CR3: 000000005040e000 CR4: 0000000000352ef0
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 hsr_forward_do net/hsr/hsr_forward.c:-1 [inline]
 hsr_forward_skb+0x1013/0x2860 net/hsr/hsr_forward.c:741
 hsr_handle_frame+0x6ce/0xa70 net/hsr/hsr_slave.c:84
 __netif_receive_skb_core+0x10b9/0x4380 net/core/dev.c:5966
 __netif_receive_skb_one_core net/core/dev.c:6077 [inline]
 __netif_receive_skb+0x72/0x380 net/core/dev.c:6192
 netif_receive_skb_internal net/core/dev.c:6278 [inline]
 netif_receive_skb+0x1cb/0x790 net/core/dev.c:6337
 tun_rx_batched+0x1b9/0x730 drivers/net/tun.c:1485
 tun_get_user+0x2b65/0x3e90 drivers/net/tun.c:1953
 tun_chr_write_iter+0x113/0x200 drivers/net/tun.c:1999
 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:593 [inline]
 vfs_write+0x5c9/0xb30 fs/read_write.c:686
 ksys_write+0x145/0x250 fs/read_write.c:738
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xfa/0xfa0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7f0449f8e1ff
Code: 89 54 24 18 48 89 74 24 10 89 7c 24 08 e8 f9 92 02 00 48 8b 54 24 18 48 8b 74 24 10 41 89 c0 8b 7c 24 08 b8 01 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 31 44 89 c7 48 89 44 24 08 e8 4c 93 02 00 48
RSP: 002b:00007ffd7ad94c90 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f044a1e5fa0 RCX: 00007f0449f8e1ff
RDX: 000000000000003e RSI: 0000200000000500 RDI: 00000000000000c8
RBP: 00007ffd7ad94d20 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 000000000000003e R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 0000000000000001
R13: 00007f044a1e5fa0 R14: 00007f044a1e5fa0 R15: 0000000000000003
 </TASK>

Add a NULL check immediately after __pskb_copy() to handle allocation
failures gracefully.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68776?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68776?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68776 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68776 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68776 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68776 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 13 Jan 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68776 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68776/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68776/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68776
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68776
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68776

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68776/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.