CVE-2026-23173: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: TC, delete flows only for existing peers When deleting TC steering flows, itera

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: TC, delete flows only for existing peers When deleting TC steering flows, itera

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: TC, delete flows only for existing peers When deleting TC steering flows, iterate only over actual devcom peers instead of assuming all possible ports exist. This avoids touching non-existent peers and ensures cleanup is limited to devices the driver is currently connected to. BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 133c8a067 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP CPU: 19 UID: 0 PID: 2169 Comm: tc Not tainted 6.18.0+ #156 NONE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:mlx5e_tc_del_fdb_peers_flow+0xbe/0x200 [mlx5_core] Code: 00 00 a8 08 74 a8 49 8b 46 18 f6 c4 02 74 9f 4c 8d bf a0 12 00 00 4c 89 ff e8 0e e7 96 e1 49 8b 44 24 08 49 8b 0c 24 4c 89 ff <48> 89 41 08 48 89 08 49 89 2c 24 49 89 5c 24 08 e8 7d ce 96 e1 49 RSP: 0018:ff11000143867528 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: dead000000000122 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: ff11000143691580 RSI: ff110001026e5000 RDI: ff11000106f3d2a0 RBP: dead0000000

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

What it means for a small business

Linux is on the computers, phones or browsers your team uses every day. Turn on automatic updates and restart: most of these fixes only take effect after a restart.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.13%, higher than 2% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 29, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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