CVE-2026-45845
Publication date:
27/05/2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:<br />
<br />
net/sched: taprio: fix NULL pointer dereference in class dump<br />
<br />
When a TAPRIO child qdisc is deleted via RTM_DELQDISC, taprio_graft()<br />
is called with new == NULL and stores NULL into q->qdiscs[cl - 1].<br />
Subsequent RTM_GETTCLASS dump operations walk all classes via<br />
taprio_walk() and call taprio_dump_class(), which calls taprio_leaf()<br />
returning the NULL pointer, then dereferences it to read child->handle,<br />
causing a kernel NULL pointer dereference.<br />
<br />
The bug is reachable with namespace-scoped CAP_NET_ADMIN on any kernel<br />
with CONFIG_NET_SCH_TAPRIO enabled. On systems with unprivileged user<br />
namespaces enabled, an unprivileged local user can trigger a kernel<br />
panic by creating a taprio qdisc inside a new network namespace,<br />
grafting an explicit child qdisc, deleting it, and requesting a class<br />
dump. The RTM_GETTCLASS dump itself requires no capability.<br />
<br />
Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000007: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI<br />
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000038-0x000000000000003f]<br />
RIP: 0010:taprio_dump_class (net/sched/sch_taprio.c:2478)<br />
Call Trace:<br />
<br />
tc_fill_tclass (net/sched/sch_api.c:1966)<br />
qdisc_class_dump (net/sched/sch_api.c:2326)<br />
taprio_walk (net/sched/sch_taprio.c:2514)<br />
tc_dump_tclass_qdisc (net/sched/sch_api.c:2352)<br />
tc_dump_tclass_root (net/sched/sch_api.c:2370)<br />
tc_dump_tclass (net/sched/sch_api.c:2431)<br />
rtnl_dumpit (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6864)<br />
netlink_dump (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2325)<br />
rtnetlink_rcv_msg (net/core/rtnetlink.c:6959)<br />
netlink_rcv_skb (net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2550)<br />
<br />
<br />
Fix this by substituting &noop_qdisc when new is NULL in<br />
taprio_graft(), a common pattern used by other qdiscs (e.g.,<br />
multiq_graft()) to ensure the q->qdiscs[] slots are never NULL.<br />
This makes control-plane dump paths safe without requiring individual<br />
NULL checks.<br />
<br />
Since the data-plane paths (taprio_enqueue and taprio_dequeue_from_txq)<br />
previously had explicit NULL guards that would drop/skip the packet<br />
cleanly, update those checks to test for &noop_qdisc instead. Without<br />
this, packets would reach taprio_enqueue_one() which increments the root<br />
qdisc&#39;s qlen and backlog before calling the child&#39;s enqueue; noop_qdisc<br />
drops the packet but those counters are never rolled back, permanently<br />
inflating the root qdisc&#39;s statistics.<br />
<br />
After this change *old can be a valid qdisc, NULL, or &noop_qdisc.<br />
Only call qdisc_put(*old) in the first case to avoid decreasing<br />
noop_qdisc&#39;s refcount, which was never increased.
Severity CVSS v4.0: Pending analysis
Last modification:
27/05/2026