CVE-2026-45918ovpn: tcp - don't deref NULL sk_socket member after tcp_close()
- 5.5MediumCVSS base score
- 0.16%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 94% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ovpn: tcp - don't deref NULL sk_socket member after tcp_close() When deleting a peer in case of keepalive expiration, the peer is removed from the OpenVPN hashtable and is temporary inserted in a "release list" for further processing. This happens in: ovpn_peer_keepalive_work() unlock_ovpn(release_list) This processing includes detaching from the socket being used to talk to this peer, by restoring its original proto and socket ops/callbacks. In case of TCP it may happen that, while the peer is sitting in the release list, userspace decides to close the socket. This will result in a concurrent execution of: tcp_close(sk) __tcp_close(sk) sock_orphan(sk) sk_set_socket(sk, NULL) The last function call will set sk->sk_socket to NULL. When the releasing routine is resumed, ovpn_tcp_socket_detach() will attempt to dereference sk->sk_socket to restore its original ops member. This operation will crash due to sk->sk_socket being NULL. Fix this race condition by testing-and-accessing sk->sk_socket atomically under sk->sk_callback_lock.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Linux
- 14 days later
· 14 days later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Undergoing Analysis | 3.1 | Medium5.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.16% · top 94% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.5.
Affected products
- affected 11851cbd60ea1e5abbd97619d69845ead99303d6 – < f998b2c4bec487063a586695159f9a1856e81c56
- affected 11851cbd60ea1e5abbd97619d69845ead99303d6 – < b9142cf4e066c825ec68752a7dcaceda700bbe26
- affected 11851cbd60ea1e5abbd97619d69845ead99303d6 – < 94560267d6c41b1ff3fafbab726e3f8a55a6af34
- affected 6.16
- unaffected < 6.16
- unaffected 6.18.14 – ≤ 6.18.*
- unaffected 6.19.4 – ≤ 6.19.*
- unaffected 7.0 – ≤ *
References
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-32384 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-45918)Record last updated .