# CVE-2026-53012: nexthop: fix IPv6 route referencing IPv4 nexthop

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic by manipulating IPv6 routes to reference IPv4 nexthops, causing a 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 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-53012, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53012, GHSA-g5vp-298m-r34q, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-53012, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-53012, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-53012, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-53012, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53012

## What is CVE-2026-53012?

CVE-2026-53012 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:

nexthop: fix IPv6 route referencing IPv4 nexthop

syzbot reported a panic [1] [2].

When an IPv6 nexthop is replaced with an IPv4 nexthop, the has_v4 flag
of all groups containing this nexthop is not updated. This is because
nh_group_v4_update is only called when replacing AF_INET to AF_INET6,
but the reverse direction (AF_INET6 to AF_INET) is missed.

This allows a stale has_v4=false to bypass fib6_check_nexthop, causing
IPv6 routes to be attached to groups that effectively contain only AF_INET
members. Subsequent route lookups then call nexthop_fib6_nh() which
returns NULL for the AF_INET member, leading to a NULL pointer
dereference.

Fix by calling nh_group_v4_update whenever the family changes, not just
AF_INET to AF_INET6.

Reproducer:
	# AF_INET6 blackhole
	ip -6 nexthop add id 1 blackhole
	# group with has_v4=false
	ip nexthop add id 100 group 1
	# replace with AF_INET (no -6), has_v4 stays false
	ip nexthop replace id 1 blackhole
	# pass stale has_v4 check
	ip -6 route add 2001:db8::/64 nhid 100
	# panic
	ping -6 2001:db8::1

[1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?id=e17283eb2f8dcf3dd9b47fe6f67a95f71faadad0
[2] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?id=8699b6ae54c9f35837d925686208402949e12ef3

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53012?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-53012?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-53012 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53012 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-2026-53012 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-53012 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53012 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-2026-53012/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53012/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53012
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53012
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-53012

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53012/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.