CVE-2026-23277 net/sched: teql: fix NULL pointer dereference in iptunnel_xmit on TEQL slave xmit

What is CVE-2026-23277?

CVE-2026-23277 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 Mar 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/sched: teql: fix NULL pointer dereference in iptunnel_xmit on TEQL slave xmit

teql_master_xmit() calls netdev_start_xmit(skb, slave) to transmit through slave devices, but does not update skb->dev to the slave device beforehand.

When a gretap tunnel is a TEQL slave, the transmit path reaches iptunnel_xmit() which saves dev = skb->dev (still pointing to teql0 master) and later calls iptunnel_xmit_stats(dev, pkt_len). This function does:

get_cpu_ptr(dev->tstats)

Since teql_master_setup() does not set dev->pcpu_stat_type to NETDEV_PCPU_STAT_TSTATS, the core network stack never allocates tstats for teql0, so dev->tstats is NULL. get_cpu_ptr(NULL) computes NULL + __per_cpu_offset[cpu], resulting in a page fault.

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffff8880e6659018 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 68bc067 P4D 68bc067 PUD 0 Oops: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI RIP: 0010:iptunnel_xmit (./include/net/ip_tunnels.h:664 net/ipv4/ip_tunnel_core.c:89) Call Trace: <TASK> ip_tunnel_xmit (net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c:847) __gre_xmit (net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:478) gre_tap_xmit (net/ipv4/ip_gre.c:779) teql_master_xmit (net/sched/sch_teql.c:319) dev_hard_start_xmit (net/core/dev.c:3887) sch_direct_xmit (net/sched/sch_generic.c:347) __dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4802) neigh_direct_output (net/core/neighbour.c:1660) ip_finish_output2 (net/ipv4/ip_output.c:237) __ip_finish_output.part.0 (net/ipv4/ip_output.c:315) ip_mc_output (net/ipv4/ip_output.c:369) ip_send_skb (net/ipv4/ip_output.c:1508) udp_send_skb (net/ipv4/udp.c:1195) udp_sendmsg (net/ipv4/udp.c:1485) inet_sendmsg (net/ipv4/af_inet.c:859) __sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2206)

Fix this by setting skb->dev = slave before calling netdev_start_xmit(), so that tunnel xmit functions see the correct slave device with properly allocated tstats.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23277?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-23277?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-23277 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23277 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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 AZL-80204, BELL-CVE-2026-23277, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23277, GHSA-v66f-jqgm-8687, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-23277, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-23277 and 4 more.