CVE-2026-22993: linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-22993 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 23-01-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 11-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: idpf: Fix RSS LUT NULL ptr issue after soft reset During soft reset, the RSS LUT is freed and not restored unless the interface is up. If an ethtool command that accesses the rss lut is attempted immediately after reset, it will result in NULL ptr dereference. Also, there is no need to reset the rss lut if the soft reset does not involve queue count change. After soft reset, set the RSS LUT to default values based on the updated queue count only if the reset was a result of a queue count change and the LUT was not configured by the user. In all other cases, don't touch the LUT. Steps to reproduce: ** Bring the interface down (if up) ifconfig eth1 down ** update the queue count (eg., 27->20) ethtool -L eth1 combined 20 ** display the RSS LUT ethtool -x eth1 [82375.558338] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [82375.558373] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [82375.558391] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [82375.558408] PGD 0 P4D 0 [82375.558421] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI <snip> [82375.558516] RIP: 0010:idpf_get_rxfh+0x108/0x150 [idpf] [82375.558786] Call Trace: [82375.558793] <TASK> [82375.558804] rss_prepare.isra.0+0x187/0x2a0 [82375.558827] rss_prepare_data+0x3a/0x50 [82375.558845] ethnl_default_doit+0x13d/0x3e0 [82375.558863] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x11f/0x180 [82375.558886] genl_rcv_msg+0x1ad/0x2b0 [82375.558902] ? __pfx_ethnl_default_doit+0x10/0x10 [82375.558920] ? __pfx_genl_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10 [82375.558937] netlink_rcv_skb+0x58/0x100 [82375.558957] genl_rcv+0x2c/0x50 [82375.558971] netlink_unicast+0x289/0x3e0 [82375.558988] netlink_sendmsg+0x215/0x440 [82375.559005] __sys_sendto+0x234/0x240 [82375.559555] __x64_sys_sendto+0x28/0x30 [82375.560068] x64_sys_call+0x1909/0x1da0 [82375.560576] do_syscall_64+0x7a/0xfa0 [82375.561076] ? clear_bhb_loop+0x60/0xb0 [82375.561567] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e <snip>

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.