CVE-2023-2166 — A null pointer dereference issue was found in can protocol in net/can/af_can

A null pointer dereference issue was found in can protocol in net/can/af_can.c in the Linux before Linux. ml_priv may not be initialized in the receive path of CAN frames. A local user could use this flaw to crash the system or potentially cause a denial of service.

01What is this vulnerability?

A null pointer dereference issue was found in can protocol in net/can/af_can.c in the Linux before Linux. ml_priv may not be initialized in the receive path of CAN frames. A local user could use this flaw to crash the system or potentially cause a denial of service.

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / Linux	Linux Kernel version prior to Kernel 6.1 RC9

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-04-19T00:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-02-05T15:13:09.129Z

09References

• lore.kernel.org — https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAO4mrfcV_07hbj8NUuZrA8FH-kaRsrFy-2metecpTuE5kKHn5w…