NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2026-23060

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: authencesn - reject too-short AAD (assoclen<8) to match ESP/ESN spec authencesn assumes an ESP/ESN-formatted AAD. When assoclen is shorter than the minimum expected length, crypto_authenc_esn_decrypt() can advance past the end of the destination scatterlist and trigger a NULL pointer dereference in scatterwalk_map_and_copy(), leading to a kernel panic (DoS). Add a minimum AAD length check to fail fast on invalid inputs.

EPSS: 0.001 (2.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.