# CVE-2026-43100: bridge: guard local VLAN-0 FDB helpers against NULL vlan group

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by creating a bridge with specific options when VLAN filtering is disabled, 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:** 6 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-43100, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43100, GHSA-r5qw-5m8q-6774, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43100

## What is CVE-2026-43100?

CVE-2026-43100 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 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:

bridge: guard local VLAN-0 FDB helpers against NULL vlan group

When CONFIG_BRIDGE_VLAN_FILTERING is not set, br_vlan_group() and
nbp_vlan_group() return NULL (br_private.h stub definitions). The
BR_BOOLOPT_FDB_LOCAL_VLAN_0 toggle code is compiled unconditionally and
reaches br_fdb_delete_locals_per_vlan_port() and
br_fdb_insert_locals_per_vlan_port(), where the NULL vlan group pointer
is dereferenced via list_for_each_entry(v, &vg->vlan_list, vlist).

The observed crash is in the delete path, triggered when creating a
bridge with IFLA_BR_MULTI_BOOLOPT containing BR_BOOLOPT_FDB_LOCAL_VLAN_0
via RTM_NEWLINK. The insert helper has the same bug pattern.

  Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000056: 0000 [#1] KASAN NOPTI
  KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000002b0-0x00000000000002b7]
  RIP: 0010:br_fdb_delete_locals_per_vlan+0x2b9/0x310
  Call Trace:
   br_fdb_toggle_local_vlan_0+0x452/0x4c0
   br_toggle_fdb_local_vlan_0+0x31/0x80 net/bridge/br.c:276
   br_boolopt_toggle net/bridge/br.c:313
   br_boolopt_multi_toggle net/bridge/br.c:364
   br_changelink net/bridge/br_netlink.c:1542
   br_dev_newlink net/bridge/br_netlink.c:1575

Add NULL checks for the vlan group pointer in both helpers, returning
early when there are no VLANs to iterate. This matches the existing
pattern used by other bridge FDB functions such as br_fdb_add() and
br_fdb_delete().

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43100?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43100?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43100 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43100 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-2026-43100 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43100 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 6 May 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-2026-43100 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-2026-43100/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43100/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43100
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43100
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43100

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43100/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.