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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-52941 json

net/smc: avoid NULL deref of conn->lnk in smc_msg_event tracepoint

published 2026-06-24 4 mo ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago also EUVD-2026-38711

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 1%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net/smc: avoid NULL deref of conn->lnk in smc_msg_event tracepoint

The smc_msg_event tracepoint class, shared by smc_tx_sendmsg and smc_rx_recvmsg, unconditionally dereferences smc->conn.lnk:

__string(name, smc->conn.lnk->ibname)

conn->lnk is only set for SMC-R; for SMC-D it is NULL. Other code on these paths already handles this (e.g. !conn->lnk in SMC_STAT_RMB_TX_SIZE_SMALL()). With the tracepoint enabled, the first sendmsg()/recvmsg() on an SMC-D socket crashes:

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [...] RIP: 0010:strlen+0x1e/0xa0 Call Trace: trace_event_raw_event_smc_msg_event (net/smc/smc_tracepoint.h:44) smc_rx_recvmsg (net/smc/smc_rx.c:515) smc_recvmsg (net/smc/af_smc.c:2859) __sys_recvfrom (net/socket.c:2315) __x64_sys_recvfrom (net/socket.c:2326) do_syscall_64

The faulting address 0x3e0 is offsetof(struct smc_link, ibname), confirming the NULL ->lnk deref. Enabling the tracepoint requires root, but the trigger itself is unprivileged: socket(AF_SMC, ...) has no capability check, and SMC-D negotiation needs no admin step on s390 or on x86 with the loopback ISM device loaded.

Log an empty device name for SMC-D instead of dereferencing NULL.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.175, 6.6.142, 6.12.92, 6.18.34, 7.0.11, 7.1
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.176-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.94-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.0.12-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-52941

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-139.139
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-28.28
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.67
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1009.9
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1067.75
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.8
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1062.70
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1003.4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-52941

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 Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.72.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.72.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.72.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.78.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.78.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.78.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.78.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.78.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:3810-1SUSE-SU-2026:3790-1SUSE-SU-2026:23244-1SUSE-SU-2026:23241-1SUSE-SU-2026:23194-1SUSE-SU-2026:23193-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.37.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21555-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.143.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-90815

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-2026-52941 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: net/smc: avoid NULL deref of conn->lnk in smc_msg_event tracepoint

  • 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 SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 1% 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
Technology feeds

References

Sources

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.