CVE-2026-23010 ipv6: Fix use-after-free in inet6_addr_del().

What is CVE-2026-23010?

CVE-2026-23010 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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:

ipv6: Fix use-after-free in inet6_addr_del().

syzbot reported use-after-free of inet6_ifaddr in inet6_addr_del(). [0]

The cited commit accidentally moved ipv6_del_addr() for mngtmpaddr before reading its ifp->flags for temporary addresses in inet6_addr_del().

Let's move ipv6_del_addr() down to fix the UAF.

[0]: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in inet6_addr_del.constprop.0+0x67a/0x6b0 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3117 Read of size 4 at addr ffff88807b89c86c by task syz.3.1618/9593

CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 9593 Comm: syz.3.1618 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 10/25/2025 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x116/0x1f0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xcd/0x630 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0xe0/0x110 mm/kasan/report.c:595 inet6_addr_del.constprop.0+0x67a/0x6b0 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3117 addrconf_del_ifaddr+0x11e/0x190 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3181 inet6_ioctl+0x1e5/0x2b0 net/ipv6/af_inet6.c:582 sock_do_ioctl+0x118/0x280 net/socket.c:1254 sock_ioctl+0x227/0x6b0 net/socket.c:1375 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:583 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f164cf8f749 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007f164de64038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f164d1e5fa0 RCX: 00007f164cf8f749 RDX: 0000200000000000 RSI: 0000000000008936 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007f164d013f91 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007f164d1e6038 R14: 00007f164d1e5fa0 R15: 00007ffde15c8288 </TASK>

Allocated by task 9593: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 mm/kasan/common.c:56 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 mm/kasan/common.c:77 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:397 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:414 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:957 [inline] kzalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:1094 [inline] ipv6_add_addr+0x4e3/0x2010 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:1120 inet6_addr_add+0x256/0x9b0 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3050 addrconf_add_ifaddr+0x1fc/0x450 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3160 inet6_ioctl+0x103/0x2b0 net/ipv6/af_inet6.c:580 sock_do_ioctl+0x118/0x280 net/socket.c:1254 sock_ioctl+0x227/0x6b0 net/socket.c:1375 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:583 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

Freed by task 6099: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 mm/kasan/common.c:56 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 mm/kasan/common.c:77 kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 mm/kasan/generic.c:584 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:252 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x5f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:284 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:234 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2540 [inline] slab_free_freelist_hook mm/slub.c:2569 [inline] slab_free_bulk mm/slub.c:6696 [inline] kmem_cache_free_bulk mm/slub.c:7383 [inline] kmem_cache_free_bulk+0x2bf/0x680 mm/slub.c:7362 kfree_bulk include/linux/slab.h:830 [inline] kvfree_rcu_bulk+0x1b7/0x1e0 mm/slab_common.c:1523 kvfree_rcu_drain_ready mm/slab_common.c:1728 [inline] kfree_rcu_monitor+0x1d0/0x2f0 mm/slab_common.c:1801 process_one_work+0x9ba/0x1b20 kernel/workqueue.c:3257 process_scheduled_works kernel/workqu ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23010?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-23010?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2026-23010 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23010 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALSA-2026:4723, BELL-CVE-2026-23010, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23010, GHSA-3c7w-pf2p-jwm8, RHSA-2026:4723, RLSA-2026:4723 and 4 more.