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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-45842 json

slip: reject VJ receive packets on instances with no rstate array

published 2026-05-27 5 mo ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago also EUVD-2026-32168

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 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

slip: reject VJ receive packets on instances with no rstate array

slhc_init() accepts rslots == 0 as a valid configuration, with the documented meaning of 'no receive compression'. In that case the allocation loop in slhc_init() is skipped, so comp->rstate stays NULL and comp->rslot_limit stays 0 (from the kzalloc of struct slcompress).

The receive helpers do not defend against that configuration. slhc_uncompress() dereferences comp->rstate[x] when the VJ header carries an explicit connection ID, and slhc_remember() later assigns cs = &comp->rstate[...] after only comparing the packet's slot number to comp->rslot_limit. Because rslot_limit is 0, slot 0 passes the range check, and the code dereferences a NULL rstate.

The configuration is reachable in-tree through PPP. PPPIOCSMAXCID stores its argument in a signed int, and (val >> 16) uses arithmetic shift. Passing 0xffff0000 therefore sign-extends to -1, so val2 + 1 is 0 and ppp_generic.c ends up calling slhc_init(0, 1). Because /dev/ppp open is gated by ns_capable(CAP_NET_ADMIN), the whole path is reachable from an unprivileged user namespace. Once the malformed VJ state is installed, any inbound VJ-compressed or VJ-uncompressed frame that selects slot 0 crashes the kernel in softirq context:

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] RIP: 0010:slhc_uncompress (drivers/net/slip/slhc.c:519) Call Trace: <TASK> ppp_receive_nonmp_frame (drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c:2466) ppp_input (drivers/net/ppp/ppp_generic.c:2359) ppp_async_process (drivers/net/ppp/ppp_async.c:492) tasklet_action_common (kernel/softirq.c:926) handle_softirqs (kernel/softirq.c:623) run_ksoftirqd (kernel/softirq.c:1055) smpboot_thread_fn (kernel/smpboot.c:160) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:436) ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:164) </TASK>

Reject the receive side on such instances instead of touching rstate. slhc_uncompress() falls through to its existing 'bad' label, which bumps sls_i_error and enters the toss state. slhc_remember() mirrors that with an explicit sls_i_error increment followed by slhc_toss(); the sls_i_runt counter is not used here because a missing rstate is an internal configuration state, not a runt packet.

The transmit path is unaffected: the only in-tree caller that picks rslots from userspace (ppp_generic.c) still supplies tslots >= 1, and slip.c always calls slhc_init(16, 16), so comp->tstate remains valid and slhc_compress() continues to work.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 2.6.33, 3.3, 3.5, 3.11, 3.13, 3.15, 3.19, 4.2, 4.4, 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 6.6.141, 6.12.91, 6.18.33, 7.0.10, 7.1
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.176-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.94-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.0.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45842

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-186.196
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-28.28
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.119
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1009.9
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1112.122
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45842

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 6.4.0-48.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-48.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.59.2
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.59.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.59.2
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.60.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.60.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.60.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:22433-1SUSE-SU-2026:22458-1SUSE-SU-2026:2591-1SUSE-SU-2026:2482-1SUSE-SU-2026:2450-1SUSE-SU-2026:22108-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.35.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20965-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10954-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.141.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-88490

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-45842 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: slip: reject VJ receive packets on instances with no rstate array

  • 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 “Fix deferred”
  • 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 ICSA-26-295-16 updated cvss 0.0

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP

  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux subsystem
    affected: mitigation, no fix available

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% 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
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux subsystem

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

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