Vulnerability in Linux Kernel Affecting batman-adv Component

CVE-2026-46233

What is CVE-2026-46233?

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's batman-adv implementation can lead to a NULL pointer dereference during the claims purging process. The function batadv_bla_purge_claims() failed to correctly handle claims that might be in the process of being released and freed. This occurs because it only traverses the hash list with an rcu_read_lock(). If a valid reference counter is not maintained, there is a risk of setting backbone_gw to NULL, leading to unsafe operations when calling batadv_bla_claim_get_backbone_gw(). To mitigate this issue, only claims with valid reference counters should be purged, preventing potential crashes or system instability.

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