Affected: Linux

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

net: nexthop: fix null pointer dereference when IPv6 is not enabled

When we try to add an IPv6 nexthop and IPv6 is not enabled (!CONFIG_IPV6) we'll hit a NULL pointer dereference[1] in the error path of nh_create_ipv6() due to calling ipv6_stub->fib6_nh_release. The bug has been present since the beginning of IPv6 nexthop gateway support. Commit 1aefd3de7bc6 ("ipv6: Add fib6_nh_init and release to stubs") tells us that only fib6_nh_init has a dummy stub because fib6_nh_release should not be called if fib6_nh_init returns an error, but the commit below added a call to ipv6_stub->fib6_nh_release in its error path. To fix it return the dummy stub's -EAFNOSUPPORT error directly without calling ipv6_stub->fib6_nh_release in nh_create_ipv6()'s error path.

[1] Output is a bit truncated, but it clearly shows the error. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000000000 #PF: supervisor instruction fetch in kernel modede #PF: error_code(0x0010) - not-present pagege PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0010 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 4 PID: 638 Comm: ip Kdump: loaded Not tainted 5.16.0-rc1+ #446 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-4.fc34 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:0x0 Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at RIP 0xffffffffffffffd6. RSP: 0018:ffff888109f5b8f0 EFLAGS: 00010286^Ac RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888109f5ba28 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00000000000000…