CVE-2026-52925 vrf: Fix a potential NPD when removing a port from a VRF

What is CVE-2026-52925?

CVE-2026-52925 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Jun 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:

vrf: Fix a potential NPD when removing a port from a VRF

RCU readers that identified a net device as a VRF port using netif_is_l3_slave() assume that a subsequent call to netdev_master_upper_dev_get_rcu() will return a VRF device. They then continue to dereference its l3mdev operations.

This assumption is not always correct and can result in a NPD [1]. There is no RCU synchronization when removing a port from a VRF, so it is possible for an RCU reader to see a new master device (e.g., a bridge) that does not have l3mdev operations.

Fix by adding RCU synchronization after clearing the IFF_L3MDEV_SLAVE flag. Skip this synchronization when a net device is removed from a VRF as part of its deletion and when the VRF device itself is deleted. In the latter case an RCU grace period will pass by the time RTNL is released.

[1] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [...] RIP: 0010:l3mdev_fib_table_rcu (net/l3mdev/l3mdev.c:181) [...] Call Trace: <TASK> l3mdev_fib_table_by_index (net/l3mdev/l3mdev.c:201 net/l3mdev/l3mdev.c:189) __inet_bind (net/ipv4/af_inet.c:499 (discriminator 3)) inet_bind_sk (net/ipv4/af_inet.c:469) __sys_bind (./include/linux/file.h:62 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/file.h:83 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:1951 (discriminator 1)) __x64_sys_bind (net/socket.c:1969 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:1967 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:1967 (discriminator 1)) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 (discriminator 1) arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 (discriminator 1)) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52925?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-52925?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-52925 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52925 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 BELL-CVE-2026-52925, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52925, GHSA-vg8w-8f3p-9p3c, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-52925, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-52925, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-52925 and 2 more.