# CVE-2026-80756: selinux: do not cancel a policy conversion that never started

> A local attacker with high privileges can cause a kernel crash via NULL pointer dereference during failed SELinux policy loads.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 3 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 3 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-99074, BELL-CVE-2026-80756, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-80756, GHSA-crch-pp65-6j6f, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80756

## What is CVE-2026-80756?

CVE-2026-80756 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 3 Sep 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:

selinux: do not cancel a policy conversion that never started

sel_write_load() calls selinux_policy_cancel() when sel_make_policy_nodes()
fails, and that helper dereferences the outgoing policy to cancel its
sidtab conversion. On the first policy load there is no outgoing policy:
security_load_policy() returns early for that case, before it converts
anything, and state->policy is still NULL. A first load that fails while
building the selinuxfs tree therefore takes a NULL dereference in
selinux_policy_cancel(), reached from a write(2) to /sys/fs/selinux/load.

Skip the cancel when there is no old policy, mirroring the check
security_load_policy() already makes before it converts.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-80756?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-80756?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-80756 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80756 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-80756 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-80756 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 3 Sep 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-2026-80756 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-80756/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-80756/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-80756
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-80756
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-80756

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-80756/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.