NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2026-31425

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rds: ib: reject FRMR registration before IB connection is established rds_ib_get_mr() extracts the rds_ib_connection from conn->c_transport_data and passes it to rds_ib_reg_frmr() for FRWR memory registration. On a fresh outgoing connection, ic is allocated in rds_ib_conn_alloc() with i_cm_id = NULL because the connection worker has not yet called rds_ib_conn_path_connect() to create the rdma_cm_id. When sendmsg() with RDS_CMSG_RDMA_MAP is called on such a connection, the sendmsg path parses the control message before any connection establishment, allowing rds_ib_post_reg_frmr() to dereference ic->i_cm_id->qp and crash the kernel. The existing guard in rds_ib_reg_frmr() only checks for !ic (added in commit 9e630bcb7701), which does not catch this case since ic is allocated early and is always non-NULL once the connection object exists. KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017] RIP: 0010:rds_ib_post_reg_frmr+0x50e/0x920 Call Trace: rds_ib_post_reg_frmr (net/rds/ib_frmr.c:167) rds_ib_map_frmr (net/rds/ib_frmr.c:252) rds_ib_reg_frmr (net/rds/ib_frmr.c:430) rds_ib_get_mr (net/rds/ib_rdma.c:615) __rds_rdma_map (net/rds/rdma.c:295) rds_cmsg_rdma_map (net/rds/rdma.c:860) rds_sendmsg (net/rds/send.c:1363) ____sys_sendmsg do_syscall_64 Add a check in rds_ib_get_mr() that verifies ic, i_cm_id, and qp are all non-NULL before proceeding with FRMR registration, mirroring the guard already present in rds_ib_post_inv(). Return -ENODEV when the connection is not ready, which the existing error handling in rds_cmsg_send() converts to -EAGAIN for userspace retry and triggers rds_conn_connect_if_down() to start the connection worker.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (4.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 5th percentile — 4.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-31425: held from 0.001 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 1659185fb4d0025835eb2058a141f0746c5cab00, 4.6, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 7.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-31425?
CVE-2026-31425 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-04-13.
How severe is CVE-2026-31425?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.