# CVE-2026-23210: ice: Fix PTP NULL pointer dereference during VSI rebuild > A race condition in the Intel ice network driver causes a kernel NULL pointer dereference, leading to a system crash. - **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Any signed-in user - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 14 Feb 2026 - **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-23210, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23210, GHSA-7w83-2rgm-8vj5, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23210, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23210 ## What is CVE-2026-23210? CVE-2026-23210 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Feb 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: ice: Fix PTP NULL pointer dereference during VSI rebuild Fix race condition where PTP periodic work runs while VSI is being rebuilt, accessing NULL vsi->rx_rings. The sequence was: 1. ice_ptp_prepare_for_reset() cancels PTP work 2. ice_ptp_rebuild() immediately queues PTP work 3. VSI rebuild happens AFTER ice_ptp_rebuild() 4. PTP work runs and accesses NULL vsi->rx_rings Fix: Keep PTP work cancelled during rebuild, only queue it after VSI rebuild completes in ice_rebuild(). Added ice_ptp_queue_work() helper function to encapsulate the logic for queuing PTP work, ensuring it's only queued when PTP is supported and the state is ICE_PTP_READY. Error log: [ 121.392544] ice 0000:60:00.1: PTP reset successful [ 121.392692] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [ 121.392712] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 121.392720] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 121.392727] PGD 0 [ 121.392734] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 121.392746] CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 1005 Comm: ice-ptp-0000:60 Tainted: G S 6.19.0-rc6+ #4 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 121.392761] Tainted: [S]=CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC [ 121.392773] RIP: 0010:ice_ptp_update_cached_phctime+0xbf/0x150 [ice] [ 121.393042] Call Trace: [ 121.393047] [ 121.393055] ice_ptp_periodic_work+0x69/0x180 [ice] [ 121.393202] kthread_worker_fn+0xa2/0x260 [ 121.393216] ? __pfx_ice_ptp_periodic_work+0x10/0x10 [ice] [ 121.393359] ? __pfx_kthread_worker_fn+0x10/0x10 [ 121.393371] kthread+0x10d/0x230 [ 121.393382] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 121.393393] ret_from_fork+0x273/0x2b0 [ 121.393407] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 121.393417] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 121.393432] Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference), CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23210? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2026-23210? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2026-23210 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23210 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel - [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2026-23210 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-23210 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Feb 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-2026-23210 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2026-23210/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23210/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23210 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23210 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23210 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23210/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.