CVE-2026-64116

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's IPv6 In-situ Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (IOAM) module. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a system crash, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS). The flaw occurs because the ipv6_hop_ioam() function does not properly validate a pointer during IPv6 interface teardown, which can result in a NULL pointer dereference when processing an IOAM Hop-by-Hop option.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate severity because successful exploitation leads to a kernel crash and denial of service without exposing sensitive data or enabling code execution, but it depends on hitting a narrow race condition during network interface teardown. The issue manifests when an incoming packet containing an IOAM hop-by-hop extension header is processed while the underlying network device is being brought down. Enterprise deployments running older releases such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9 are unaffected as they do not carry the vulnerable IOAM implementation.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.