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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-23398 json

icmp: fix NULL pointer dereference in icmp_tag_validation()

published 2026-03-26 7 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2026-16158

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

icmp: fix NULL pointer dereference in icmp_tag_validation()

icmp_tag_validation() unconditionally dereferences the result of rcu_dereference(inet_protos[proto]) without checking for NULL. The inet_protos[] array is sparse -- only about 15 of 256 protocol numbers have registered handlers. When ip_no_pmtu_disc is set to 3 (hardened PMTU mode) and the kernel receives an ICMP Fragmentation Needed error with a quoted inner IP header containing an unregistered protocol number, the NULL dereference causes a kernel panic in softirq context.

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000002: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017] RIP: 0010:icmp_unreach (net/ipv4/icmp.c:1085 net/ipv4/icmp.c:1143) Call Trace: <IRQ> icmp_rcv (net/ipv4/icmp.c:1527) ip_protocol_deliver_rcu (net/ipv4/ip_input.c:207) ip_local_deliver_finish (net/ipv4/ip_input.c:242) ip_local_deliver (net/ipv4/ip_input.c:262) ip_rcv (net/ipv4/ip_input.c:573) __netif_receive_skb_one_core (net/core/dev.c:6164) process_backlog (net/core/dev.c:6628) handle_softirqs (kernel/softirq.c:561) </IRQ>

Add a NULL check before accessing icmp_strict_tag_validation. If the protocol has no registered handler, return false since it cannot perform strict tag validation.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.6.130, 6.12.78, 6.18.20, 6.19.10, 7.0
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.170-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.19.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23398

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-186.196
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.119
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.122
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1108.114
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1059.67

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23398

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.2 5.3.18-150300.241.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Micro 5.2 5.3.18-150300.241.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.37.2
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.37.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.37.2
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-64kb Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-source Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.28.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:1575-1SUSE-SU-2026:1573-1SUSE-SU-2026:21237-1SUSE-SU-2026:21230-1SUSE-SU-2026:21255-1SUSE-SU-2026:1342-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.28.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20572-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.130.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-80847

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-23398 updated cvss 6.2

kernel: icmp: fix NULL pointer dereference in icmp_tag_validation()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

cisa ICSA-26-295-11 updated cvss 5.9

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518(F)-4 PN/DP MFP

  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.7 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.7 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.7 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.7 Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6AG1518-4AX00-4AC0) >= 3.1.7
    affected: mitigation, no fix available

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

cisa ICSA-26-295-16 updated cvss 5.9

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP

  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux subsystem
    affected: mitigation, no fix available

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

cisa ICSA-26-209-04 updated cvss 5.9

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518(F)-4 PN/DP MFP

  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.6 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.6 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.6 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.6 Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6AG1518-4AX00-4AC0) >= 3.1.6
    affected: mitigation, no fix available

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux subsystem
  • Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.