CVE-2026-45965: apparmor: fix invalid deref of rawdata when export_binary is unset

Q: Which systems are exposed to this issue?

Systems are exposed when AppArmor profiles were loaded while export_binary was enabled, export_binary is later disabled at runtime, and one of those existing profiles is replaced. The stale rawdata symbolic link in apparmorfs can then reference rawdata that has been cleared.

Q: What access does an attacker need to trigger the crash?

The supplied severity vector indicates local access and low privileges are required, with no user interaction. Triggering the condition also depends on being able to cause or participate in replacing an affected AppArmor profile and resolving its rawdata symbolic link.

Q: What is the impact if the issue is triggered?

Resolving the affected rawdata symbolic link can dereference a NULL rawdata pointer in the kernel and cause an oops. The stated impact is availability loss; no confidentiality or integrity impact is indicated.

Q: What can be done if an update cannot be applied immediately?

Avoid disabling the AppArmor export_binary parameter at runtime after profiles have already been loaded, and avoid replacing profiles that were loaded before export_binary was disabled. This prevents the described stale rawdata link condition.

Published May 27, 2026

Updated

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

apparmor: fix invalid deref of rawdata when exportbinary is unset

If the exportbinary parameter is disabled on runtime, profiles that were loaded before that will still have their rawdata stored in apparmorfs, with a symbolic link to the rawdata on the policy directory. When one of those profiles are replaced, the rawdata is set to NULL, but when trying to resolve the symbolic links to rawdata for that profile, it will try to dereference profile->rawdata->name when profile->rawdata is now NULL causing an oops. Fix it by checking if rawdata is set.

[ 168.653080] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000088 [ 168.657420] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 168.660619] #PF: errorcode(0x0000) - not-present page [ 168.663613] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 168.665450] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 168.667836] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1729 Comm: ls Not tainted 6.19.0-rc7+ #3 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 168.672308] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 168.679327] RIP: 0010:rawdatagetlinkbase.isra.0+0x23/0x330 [ 168.682768] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 e5 41 57 41 56 41 55 41 54 53 48 83 ec 18 48 89 55 d0 48 85 ff 0f 84 e3 01 00 00 <48> 83 3c 25 88 00 00 00 00 0f 84 d4 01 00 00 49 89 f6 49 89 cc e8 [ 168.689818] RSP: 0018:ffffcdcb8200fb80 EFLAGS: 00010282 [ 168.690871] RAX: ffffffffaee74ec0 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffffb0120158 [ 168.692251] RDX: ffffcdcb8200fbe0 RSI: ffff88c187c9fa80 RDI: ffff88c186c98a80 [ 168.693593] RBP: ffffcdcb8200fbc0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 168.694941] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff88c186c98a80 [ 168.696289] R13: 00007fff005aaa20 R14: 0000000000000080 R15: ffff88c188f4fce0 [ 168.697637] FS: 0000790e81c58280(0000) GS:ffff88c20a957000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 168.699227] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 168.700349] CR2: 0000000000000088 CR3: 000000012fd3e000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 [ 168.701696] Call Trace: [ 168.702325] <TASK> [ 168.702995] rawdatagetlinkdata+0x1c/0x30 [ 168.704145] vfsreadlink+0xd4/0x160 [ 168.705152] doreadlinkat+0x114/0x180 [ 168.706214] x64sysreadlink+0x1e/0x30 [ 168.708653] x64syscall+0x1d77/0x26b0 [ 168.709525] dosyscall64+0x81/0x500 [ 168.710348] ? dostatx+0x72/0xb0 [ 168.711109] ? putname+0x3e/0x80 [ 168.711845] ? x64sysstatx+0xb7/0x100 [ 168.712711] ? x64syscall+0x10fc/0x26b0 [ 168.713577] ? dosyscall64+0xbf/0x500 [ 168.714412] ? douseraddrfault+0x1d2/0x8d0 [ 168.715404] ? irqentryexit+0xb2/0x740 [ 168.716359] ? excpagefault+0x90/0x1b0 [ 168.717307] entrySYSCALL64afterhwframe+0x76/0x7e

Affected Software

8 affected components

Linux Linux kernel

Linux Linux kernel>=4.17<5.10.252

Linux Linux kernel>=5.11<5.15.202

Linux Linux kernel>=5.16<6.1.165

Linux Linux kernel>=6.2<6.6.128

Linux Linux kernel>=6.7<6.12.75

Linux Linux kernel>=6.13<6.18.14

Linux Linux kernel>=6.19<6.19.4

Event History

May 27, 2026

CVE Published

via MITRE·12:18 PM

Data Sourced

via MITRE·12:18 PM

Description

Data Sourced

via NVD·02:17 PM

RemedyDescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

Which systems are exposed to this issue?

Systems are exposed when AppArmor profiles were loaded while export_binary was enabled, export_binary is later disabled at runtime, and one of those existing profiles is replaced. The stale rawdata symbolic link in apparmorfs can then reference rawdata that has been cleared.

What access does an attacker need to trigger the crash?

The supplied severity vector indicates local access and low privileges are required, with no user interaction. Triggering the condition also depends on being able to cause or participate in replacing an affected AppArmor profile and resolving its rawdata symbolic link.

What is the impact if the issue is triggered?

Resolving the affected rawdata symbolic link can dereference a NULL rawdata pointer in the kernel and cause an oops. The stated impact is availability loss; no confidentiality or integrity impact is indicated.

What can be done if an update cannot be applied immediately?

Avoid disabling the AppArmor export_binary parameter at runtime after profiles have already been loaded, and avoid replacing profiles that were loaded before export_binary was disabled. This prevents the described stale rawdata link condition.

CVE-2026-45965: apparmor: fix invalid deref of rawdata when export_binary is unset

Affected Software

Event History

Frequently Asked Questions

Which systems are exposed to this issue?

What access does an attacker need to trigger the crash?

What is the impact if the issue is triggered?

What can be done if an update cannot be applied immediately?

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Resources

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which systems are exposed to this issue?

What access does an attacker need to trigger the crash?

What is the impact if the issue is triggered?

What can be done if an update cannot be applied immediately?