medium 5.5

CVE-2026-22985 json

idpf: Fix RSS LUT NULL pointer crash on early ethtool operations

published 2026-01-23 9 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2026-4285

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 3%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

The RSS LUT is not initialized until the interface comes up, causing the following NULL pointer crash when ethtool operations like rxhash on/off are performed before the interface is brought up for the first time.

Move RSS LUT initialization from ndo_open to vport creation to ensure LUT is always available. This enables RSS configuration via ethtool before bringing the interface up. Simplify LUT management by maintaining all changes in the driver's soft copy and programming zeros to the indirection table when rxhash is disabled. Defer HW programming until the interface comes up if it is down during rxhash and LUT configuration changes.

Steps to reproduce: ** Load idpf driver; interfaces will be created modprobe idpf ** Before bringing the interfaces up, turn rxhash off ethtool -K eth2 rxhash off

[89408.371875] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [89408.371908] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [89408.371924] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [89408.371940] PGD 0 P4D 0 [89408.371953] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI <snip> [89408.372052] RIP: 0010:memcpy_orig+0x16/0x130 [89408.372310] Call Trace: [89408.372317] <TASK> [89408.372326] ? idpf_set_features+0xfc/0x180 [idpf] [89408.372363] __netdev_update_features+0x295/0xde0 [89408.372384] ethnl_set_features+0x15e/0x460 [89408.372406] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x11f/0x180 [89408.372429] genl_rcv_msg+0x1ad/0x2b0 [89408.372446] ? __pfx_ethnl_set_features+0x10/0x10 [89408.372465] ? __pfx_genl_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10 [89408.372482] netlink_rcv_skb+0x58/0x100 [89408.372502] genl_rcv+0x2c/0x50 [89408.372516] netlink_unicast+0x289/0x3e0 [89408.372533] netlink_sendmsg+0x215/0x440 [89408.372551] __sys_sendto+0x234/0x240 [89408.372571] __x64_sys_sendto+0x28/0x30 [89408.372585] x64_sys_call+0x1909/0x1da0 [89408.372604] do_syscall_64+0x7a/0xfa0 [89408.373140] ? clear_bhb_loop+0x60/0xb0 [89408.373647] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [89408.378887] </TASK> <snip>

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 4 links 3

Linux Linux 6.12.80, 6.18.6, 6.19

debian ubuntu suse opensuse

linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
linux Debian 14 6.18.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-22985

linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72
linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1059.67
linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.62
linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1063.71
linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1046.50
linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.65

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-22985

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 Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1.160000.2.7
kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1 SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1 SUSE-SU-2026:20555-1 SUSE-SU-2026:20599-1 SUSE-SU-2026:20615-1 SUSE-SU-2026:20570-1

kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1
kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.26.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20287-1

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-2026-22985 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 6.2

kernel: idpf: Fix RSS LUT NULL pointer crash on early ethtool operations

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: no fix available
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more 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 SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 3 d ago (2026-11-05)

Exploit prediction

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

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

Classification

Weakness

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-22985
NVD CVE-2026-22985

Fencer Vulns 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.

Summary