CVE-2026-45966

Name	CVE-2026-45966
Description	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.
Source	CVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source Package	Release	Version	Status
linux (PTS)	bullseye	5.10.223-1	fixed
	bullseye (security)	5.10.257-1	fixed
	bookworm	6.1.170-3	fixed
	bookworm (security)	6.1.174-1	fixed
	trixie	6.12.86-1	fixed
	trixie (security)	6.12.90-2	fixed
	forky	7.0.10-1	fixed
	sid	7.0.12-2	fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

Package	Type	Release	Fixed Version
linux	source	bullseye	(not affected)
linux	source	bookworm	(not affected)
linux	source	trixie	(not affected)
linux	source	(unstable)	6.18.14-1

Notes

[trixie] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[bookworm] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
[bullseye] - linux <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://git.kernel.org/linus/e2938ad00b21340c0362562dfedd7cfec0554d67 (7.0-rc1)