# CVE-2026-31546: net: bonding: fix NULL deref in bond_debug_rlb_hash_show > A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by reading a debugfs file when a bonding slave is null, leading to denial of service. - **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 24 Apr 2026 - **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-31546, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31546, GHSA-wqj5-2hrg-w494, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-31546, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-31546, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-31546, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-31546, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-31546, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31546 ## What is CVE-2026-31546? CVE-2026-31546 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 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: bonding: fix NULL deref in bond_debug_rlb_hash_show rlb_clear_slave intentionally keeps RLB hash-table entries on the rx_hashtbl_used_head list with slave set to NULL when no replacement slave is available. However, bond_debug_rlb_hash_show visites client_info->slave without checking if it's NULL. Other used-list iterators in bond_alb.c already handle this NULL-slave state safely: - rlb_update_client returns early on !client_info->slave - rlb_req_update_slave_clients, rlb_clear_slave, and rlb_rebalance compare slave values before visiting - lb_req_update_subnet_clients continues if slave is NULL The following NULL deref crash can be trigger in bond_debug_rlb_hash_show: [ 1.289791] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [ 1.292058] RIP: 0010:bond_debug_rlb_hash_show (drivers/net/bonding/bond_debugfs.c:41) [ 1.293101] RSP: 0018:ffffc900004a7d00 EFLAGS: 00010286 [ 1.293333] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888102b48200 RCX: ffff888102b48204 [ 1.293631] RDX: ffff888102b48200 RSI: ffffffff839daad5 RDI: ffff888102815078 [ 1.293924] RBP: ffff888102815078 R08: ffff888102b4820e R09: 0000000000000000 [ 1.294267] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff888100f929c0 [ 1.294564] R13: ffff888100f92a00 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: ffffc900004a7ed8 [ 1.294864] FS: 0000000001395380(0000) GS:ffff888196e75000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 1.295239] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 1.295480] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000000102adc004 CR4: 0000000000772ef0 [ 1.295897] Call Trace: [ 1.296134] seq_read_iter (fs/seq_file.c:231) [ 1.296341] seq_read (fs/seq_file.c:164) [ 1.296493] full_proxy_read (fs/debugfs/file.c:378 (discriminator 1)) [ 1.296658] vfs_read (fs/read_write.c:572) [ 1.296981] ksys_read (fs/read_write.c:717) [ 1.297132] do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 (discriminator 1) arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 (discriminator 1)) [ 1.297325] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130) Add a NULL check and print "(none)" for entries with no assigned slave. Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31546? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2026-31546? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2026-31546 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31546 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-2026-31546 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-31546 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 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-2026-31546 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-2026-31546/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-31546/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-31546 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-31546 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-31546 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-31546/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.