published May 1, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
crypto: af-alg - fix NULL pointer dereference in scatterwalk
The AF_ALG interface fails to unmark the end of a Scatter/Gather List (SGL)
when chaining a new af_alg_tsgl structure. If a sendmsg() fills an SGL
exactly to MAX_SGL_ENTS, the last entry is marked as the end. A subsequent
sendmsg() allocates a new SGL and chains it, but fails to clear the end
marker on the previous SGL's last data entry.
This causes the crypto scatterwalk to hit a premature end, returning NULL
on sg_next() and leading to a kernel panic during dereference.
Fix this by explicitly unmarking the end of the previous SGL when
performing sg_chain() in af_alg_alloc_tsgl().