CVE-2026-45966

MEDIUMNVD 5.55.5—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 5.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2026-05-27. NVD baseline CVSS 5.5; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
5.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS: 5.5Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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

apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation

When receiving file descriptors via SCM_RIGHTS, both the socket pointer and the socket's sk pointer can be NULL during socket setup or teardown, causing NULL pointer dereferences in __unix_needs_revalidation().

This is a regression in AppArmor 5.0.0 (kernel 6.17+) where the new __unix_needs_revalidation() function was added without proper NULL checks.

The crash manifests as: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0x0000000000000018 RIP: aa_file_perm+0xb7/0x3b0 (or +0xbe/0x3b0, +0xc0/0x3e0) Call Trace: apparmor_file_receive+0x42/0x80 security_file_receive+0x2e/0x50 receive_fd+0x1d/0xf0 scm_detach_fds+0xad/0x1c0

The function dereferences sock->sk->sk_family without checking if either sock or sock->sk is NULL first.

Add NULL checks for both sock and sock->sk before accessing sk_family.

CVSS v3
5.5
EG Score
5.5(medium)
EG Risk
29(Track)
EG Risk 29/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity55% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
2%
KEV
Not listed

Published

May 27, 2026

Last Modified

June 16, 2026

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Jun 16, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic

apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fea017a7f6abe179decf575a2d8464c74edb3964
generic

apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e85bc9101afc4202aa2269967ce9d3ffbecd0994
generic

apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in __unix_needs_revalidation - kernel/git/stable/linux.git - Linux kernel stable tree

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e2938ad00b21340c0362562dfedd7cfec0554d67

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-45966(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulinux-tools-gcp-64k-6.17 (6.17.0-1018.19) @ questing2026-08-25ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-nvidia-hwe-24.04 (6.17.0-1026.26) @ noble2026-08-25ubuntu

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
linux6.12.100-1 ... 6.18~rc7-1~exp1 (100 versions)6.18.14-1—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(2)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 5× in last 7d / 65× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 199 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-02 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-09-01 13:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-30 01:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-28 21:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-27 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-26 14:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-08-25 05:36 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-08-25 05:36 UTCVendor advisory
  12. 2026-08-25 05:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-08-23 15:26 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-08-23 15:26 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-08-23 15:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-08-21 23:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-21 20:47 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-08-21 20:47 UTCVendor advisory
  19. 2026-08-21 20:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-08-20 22:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-20 12:33 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-08-20 12:33 UTCVendor advisory
  23. 2026-08-20 12:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-08-18 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-08-17 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-08-17 09:20 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-08-17 09:20 UTCVendor advisory
  3. 2026-08-17 09:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-16 02:53 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-08-16 02:53 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-08-16 02:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-08-16 02:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-15 01:33 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-08-15 01:33 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-08-15 01:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-08-15 01:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-14 01:31 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-08-14 01:31 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-08-14 01:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-08-13 22:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-13 00:29 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-08-13 00:29 UTCVendor advisory
  19. 2026-08-13 00:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-08-12 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-12 00:27 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-08-12 00:27 UTCVendor advisory
  23. 2026-08-12 00:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-08-11 00:14 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-08-11 00:14 UTCVendor advisory
  26. 2026-08-11 00:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  27. 2026-08-11 00:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-08-09 21:51 UTCVendor advisory
  29. 2026-08-09 21:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  30. 2026-08-08 21:49 UTCEG score recompute
  31. 2026-08-08 21:49 UTCVendor advisory
  32. 2026-08-08 21:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-08-08 16:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-08-07 20:59 UTCEG score recompute
  35. 2026-08-07 20:59 UTCVendor advisory
  36. 2026-08-07 20:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  37. 2026-08-06 20:57 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-08-06 20:57 UTCVendor advisory
  39. 2026-08-06 20:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  40. 2026-08-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-08-05 20:55 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-08-05 20:55 UTCVendor advisory
  43. 2026-08-05 20:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  44. 2026-08-05 19:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-08-04 15:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-08-04 10:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-08-03 16:29 UTCEG score recompute
  48. 2026-08-03 16:29 UTCVendor advisory
  49. 2026-08-03 16:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  50. 2026-08-03 10:36 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-08-02 15:40 UTCVendor advisory
  52. 2026-08-02 15:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  53. 2026-08-01 15:38 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-08-01 15:38 UTCVendor advisory
  55. 2026-08-01 15:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  56. 2026-08-01 04:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-07-31 07:51 UTCEG score recompute
  58. 2026-07-31 07:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-07-30 16:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-07-30 01:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-07-29 15:47 UTCEG score recompute
  62. 2026-07-29 15:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  63. 2026-07-28 15:36 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-07-27 14:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-07-27 12:02 UTCEG score recompute
  66. 2026-07-27 12:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
  67. 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-07-25 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-07-24 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-07-23 03:16 UTCEG score recompute
  73. 2026-07-22 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-07-21 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-07-20 17:08 UTCEPSS rescore

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-45966?
CVE-2026-45966 is a medium vulnerability published on May 27, 2026. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: apparmor: fix NULL pointer dereference in unixneedsrevalidation When receiving file descriptors via SCM_RIGHTS, both the socket pointer and the socket's sk pointer can be NULL during socket setup or teardown, causing NULL pointer…
When was CVE-2026-45966 disclosed?
CVE-2026-45966 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on May 27, 2026, with the most recent update on June 16, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-45966 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-45966 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 97.9% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-45966?
CVE-2026-45966 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-45966?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-45966, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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