# CVE-2026-45965: apparmor: fix invalid deref of rawdata when export_binary is unset

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by replacing an AppArmor profile when binary export is disabled, leading to a null pointer dereference.

- **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:** 27 May 2026
- **Updated:** 27 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-45965, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45965, GHSA-8pgm-3pm8-2qcc, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-45965, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-45965, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-45965, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45965

## What is CVE-2026-45965?

CVE-2026-45965 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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:

apparmor: fix invalid deref of rawdata when export_binary is unset

If the export_binary parameter is disabled on runtime, profiles that
were loaded before that will still have their rawdata stored in
apparmorfs, with a symbolic link to the rawdata on the policy
directory. When one of those profiles are replaced, the rawdata is set
to NULL, but when trying to resolve the symbolic links to rawdata for
that profile, it will try to dereference profile->rawdata->name when
profile->rawdata is now NULL causing an oops. Fix it by checking if
rawdata is set.

[  168.653080] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000088
[  168.657420] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
[  168.660619] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
[  168.663613] PGD 0 P4D 0
[  168.665450] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
[  168.667836] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1729 Comm: ls Not tainted 6.19.0-rc7+ #3 PREEMPT(voluntary)
[  168.672308] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
[  168.679327] RIP: 0010:rawdata_get_link_base.isra.0+0x23/0x330
[  168.682768] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 e5 41 57 41 56 41 55 41 54 53 48 83 ec 18 48 89 55 d0 48 85 ff 0f 84 e3 01 00 00 <48> 83 3c 25 88 00 00 00 00 0f 84 d4 01 00 00 49 89 f6 49 89 cc e8
[  168.689818] RSP: 0018:ffffcdcb8200fb80 EFLAGS: 00010282
[  168.690871] RAX: ffffffffaee74ec0 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffffb0120158
[  168.692251] RDX: ffffcdcb8200fbe0 RSI: ffff88c187c9fa80 RDI: ffff88c186c98a80
[  168.693593] RBP: ffffcdcb8200fbc0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[  168.694941] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88c186c98a80
[  168.696289] R13: 00007fff005aaa20 R14: 0000000000000080 R15: ffff88c188f4fce0
[  168.697637] FS:  0000790e81c58280(0000) GS:ffff88c20a957000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[  168.699227] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[  168.700349] CR2: 0000000000000088 CR3: 000000012fd3e000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0
[  168.701696] Call Trace:
[  168.702325]  <TASK>
[  168.702995]  rawdata_get_link_data+0x1c/0x30
[  168.704145]  vfs_readlink+0xd4/0x160
[  168.705152]  do_readlinkat+0x114/0x180
[  168.706214]  __x64_sys_readlink+0x1e/0x30
[  168.708653]  x64_sys_call+0x1d77/0x26b0
[  168.709525]  do_syscall_64+0x81/0x500
[  168.710348]  ? do_statx+0x72/0xb0
[  168.711109]  ? putname+0x3e/0x80
[  168.711845]  ? __x64_sys_statx+0xb7/0x100
[  168.712711]  ? x64_sys_call+0x10fc/0x26b0
[  168.713577]  ? do_syscall_64+0xbf/0x500
[  168.714412]  ? do_user_addr_fault+0x1d2/0x8d0
[  168.715404]  ? irqentry_exit+0xb2/0x740
[  168.716359]  ? exc_page_fault+0x90/0x1b0
[  168.717307]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-45965?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-45965?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-45965 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-45965 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-2026-45965 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-45965 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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-2026-45965 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-2026-45965/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45965/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-45965
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45965
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-45965

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45965/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
