Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-45966
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation
When receiving file descriptors via SCM_RIGHTS, both the socket pointer
and the socket's sk pointer can be NULL during socket setup or teardown,
causing NULL pointer dereferences in __unix_needs_revalidation().
This is a regression in AppArmor 5.0.0 (kernel 6.17+) where the new
__unix_needs_revalidation() function was added without proper NULL checks.
The crash manifests as:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0x0000000000000018
RIP: aa_file_perm+0xb7/0x3b0 (or +0xbe/0x3b0, +0xc0/0x3e0)
Call Trace:
apparmor_file_receive+0x42/0x80
security_file_receive+0x2e/0x50
receive_fd+0x1d/0xf0
scm_detach_fds+0xad/0x1c0
The function dereferences sock->sk->sk_family without checking if either
sock or sock->sk is NULL first.
Add NULL checks for both sock and sock->sk before accessing sk_family.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.001
EPSS Ranking 2.2%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 5.5
Products affected by CVE-2026-45966
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.12
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.13
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.11
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.13
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.2
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.3
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.5
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.1
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.3