Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2026-31424
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: x_tables: restrict xt_check_match/xt_check_target extensions for NFPROTO_ARP Weiming Shi says: xt_match and xt_target structs registered with NFPROTO_UNSPEC can be loaded by any protocol family through nft_compat. When such a match/target sets .hooks to restrict which hooks it may run on, the bitmask uses NF_INET_* constants. This is only correct for families whose hook layout matches NF_INET_*: IPv4, IPv6, INET, and bridge all share the same five hooks (PRE_ROUTING ... POST_ROUTING). ARP only has three hooks (IN=0, OUT=1, FORWARD=2) with different semantics. Because NF_ARP_OUT == 1 == NF_INET_LOCAL_IN, the .hooks validation silently passes for the wrong reasons, allowing matches to run on ARP chains where the hook assumptions (e.g. state->in being set on input hooks) do not hold. This leads to NULL pointer dereferences; xt_devgroup is one concrete example: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000044: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000220-0x0000000000000227] RIP: 0010:devgroup_mt+0xff/0x350 Call Trace: <TASK> nft_match_eval (net/netfilter/nft_compat.c:407) nft_do_chain (net/netfilter/nf_tables_core.c:285) nft_do_chain_arp (net/netfilter/nft_chain_filter.c:61) nf_hook_slow (net/netfilter/core.c:623) arp_xmit (net/ipv4/arp.c:666) </TASK> Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt Fix it by restricting arptables to NFPROTO_ARP extensions only. Note that arptables-legacy only supports: - arpt_CLASSIFY - arpt_mangle - arpt_MARK that provide explicit NFPROTO_ARP match/target declarations.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisThe code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.
General guidance for the null pointer dereference class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 2.6.39, < 5.10.253>= 5.11, < 5.15.203>= 5.16, < 6.1.168>= 6.2, < 6.6.134>= 6.7, < 6.12.81>= 6.13, < 6.18.22>= 6.19, < 6.19.12= 7.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped5.10.2535.15.2036.1.168
Upgrade to kernel >= 6.6.134 (or the latest stable 6.x/6.12.x release for your distribution). If running 5.x, upgrade to >= 5.15.203 or >= 5.10.253 depending on your branch.
- 1. Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using `uname -r`
- 2. Check which affected version range your current kernel falls into
- 3. Plan an upgrade to a kernel version >= 5.10.253, >= 5.15.203, >= 6.1.168, or >= 6.6.134
- 4. For production systems, test the new kernel in a staging environment before deploying
- 5. Apply the kernel upgrade through your distribution's package manager or compile from source
- 6. Reboot into the new kernel and verify the system boots correctly
- 7. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and confirming the patch commit 1cd6313c8644 is included
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-31424 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-31424 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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