CVE-2026-80756

/// Technical description

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

selinux: do not cancel a policy conversion that never started

sel_write_load() calls selinux_policy_cancel() when sel_make_policy_nodes()

fails, and that helper dereferences the outgoing policy to cancel its

sidtab conversion. On the first policy load there is no outgoing policy:

security_load_policy() returns early for that case, before it converts

anything, and state->policy is still NULL. A first load that fails while

building the selinuxfs tree therefore takes a NULL dereference in

selinux_policy_cancel(), reached from a write(2) to /sys/fs/selinux/load.

Skip the cancel when there is no old policy, mirroring the check

security_load_policy() already makes before it converts.

/// Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

/// References