# CVE-2026-53214: ipv6: Fix a potential NPD in cleanup_prefix_route()

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash via IPv6 address deletion due to a null pointer dereference in the routing cleanup logic.

- **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:** 25 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 25 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-90362, BELL-CVE-2026-53214, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53214, GHSA-5r3h-v82j-r7rr, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-53214, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53214

## What is CVE-2026-53214?

CVE-2026-53214 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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:

ipv6: Fix a potential NPD in cleanup_prefix_route()

addrconf_get_prefix_route() can return the fib6_null_entry sentinel
entry which has a NULL fib6_table pointer. Therefore, before setting the
route's expiration time, check that we are not working with this entry,
as otherwise a NPD will be triggered [1].

Note that the other callers of addrconf_get_prefix_route() are not
susceptible to this bug:

1. addrconf_prefix_rcv(): Requests a route with the 'RTF_ADDRCONF |
   RTF_PREFIX_RT' flags which are not set on fib6_null_entry.

2. modify_prefix_route(): Fixed by commit a747e02430df ("ipv6: avoid
   possible NULL deref in modify_prefix_route()").

3. __ipv6_ifa_notify(): Calls ip6_del_rt() which specifically checks for
   fib6_null_entry and returns an error.

[1]
Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000006: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000030-0x0000000000000037]
[...]
Call Trace:
<TASK>
__kasan_check_byte (mm/kasan/common.c:573)
lock_acquire.part.0 (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5842 (discriminator 1))
_raw_spin_lock_bh (kernel/locking/spinlock.c:182 (discriminator 1))
cleanup_prefix_route (net/ipv6/addrconf.c:1280)
ipv6_del_addr (net/ipv6/addrconf.c:1342)
inet6_addr_del.isra.0 (net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3119)
inet6_rtm_deladdr (net/ipv6/addrconf.c:4812)
rtnetlink_rcv_msg (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6997)
netlink_rcv_skb (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2555)
netlink_unicast (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1344)
netlink_sendmsg (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1899)
__sock_sendmsg (net/socket.c:802 (discriminator 4))
____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2698)
___sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2752)
__sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2784)
do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94)
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:121)

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53214?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-53214?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-53214 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53214 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-2026-53214 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-53214 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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-2026-53214 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-2026-53214/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53214/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53214
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53214
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-53214

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53214/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.