CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-64235NVD status: Modified

Linux: NULL Pointer Dereference

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-64235 is a high-severity NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in Linux, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.1 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. The record lists versions 8093442a2d1d4b42b9340a86023ccb2afb30b93a, d59cc66b702757e3c5a711e78a38583eac0c2738, 9edff632ca216169846f8a63a5a3dc467e239c7a as the first without the flaw, so updating Linux to one of those releases or later removes the exposure. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.33% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Update Linux to 8093442a2d1d4b42b9340a86023ccb2afb30b93a or d59cc66b702757e3c5a711e78a38583eac0c2738 or 9edff632ca216169846f8a63a5a3dc467e239c7a or a17dc12bfed8868e6a86f3b45c16065a70641acb, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.
  2. Update Linux Kernel to 6.12.93 or 6.18.35 or 7.0.12, whichever matches your release line, or a later version.
  3. Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
LinuxLinux59bec00ace28d565ae0a68b23063ef3b961d82d5 up to, but not including, 8093442a2d1d4b42b9340a86023ccb2afb30b93a; 59bec00ace28d565ae0a68b23063ef3b961d82d5 up to, but not including, d59cc66b702757e3c5a711e78a38583eac0c2738; 59bec00ace28d565ae0a68b23063ef3b961d82d5 up to, but not including, 9edff632ca216169846f8a63a5a3dc467e239c7a; 59bec00ace28d565ae0a68b23063ef3b961d82d5 up to, but not including, a17dc12bfed8868e6a86f3b45c16065a70641acb; 6.98093442a2d1d4b42b9340a86023ccb2afb30b93a, d59cc66b702757e3c5a711e78a38583eac0c2738, 9edff632ca216169846f8a63a5a3dc467e239c7a, a17dc12bfed8868e6a86f3b45c16065a70641acb
LinuxLinux Kernel6.9 up to, but not including, 6.12.93; 6.13 up to, but not including, 6.18.35; 6.19 up to, but not including, 7.0.12; 7.16.12.93, 6.18.35, 7.0.12

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
HighSuccess depends on conditions outside the attacker's control.
Privileges required
NoneNo account or login is needed.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/ftrace: Relocate %rip-relative percpu refs in dynamic trampolines With CONFIG_CALL_DEPTH_TRACKING enabled on an x86 retbleed-affected platform (eg: Skylake), with retbleed=stuff, registering a dynamic ftrace trampoline crashes on the first call into the traced function: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffff88817ae18880 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 4b53067 P4D 4b53067 PUD 0 Oops: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 187 Comm: usleep Not tainted 7.0.10 #243 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS Arch Linux 1.17.0-2-2 04/01/2014 Code: 24 78 00 00 00 00 48 89 ea 48 89 54 24 20 48 8b b4 24 b8 00 00 00 48 8b bc 24 b0 00 00 00 48 89 bc 24 80 00 00 00 48 83 ef 05 <65> 48 c1 3d 1f a8 b6 02 05 48 8b 15 f6 00 00 00 4c 89 3c 24 4c 89 Call Trace: <TASK> ? find_held_lock ? exc_page_fault ? lock_release ? __x64_sys_clock_nanosleep ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare ? trace_hardirqs_on __x64_sys_clock_nanosleep do_syscall_64 ? exc_page_fault ? call_depth_return_thunk entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe ... Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception This small reproducer allows to easily trigger the crash: # echo 'p __x64_sys_clock_nanosleep' > /sys/kernel/tracing/kprobe_events # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/kprobes/p___x64_sys_clock_nanosleep_0/enable # usleep 1 Monitoring the crash under GDB points to the exact instruction in charge of incrementing the call depth: sarq $5, %gs:__x86_call_depth(%rip) This instruction matches the one inserted by the ftrace_regs_caller from ftrace_64.S. This emitted code was likely working fine until the introduction of 59bec00ace28 ("x86/percpu: Introduce %rip-relative addressing to PER_CPU_VAR()"): it has made the call depth accounting addressing relative to $rip, instead of being based on an absolute address. As this code exact location depends on where the trampoline lives in memory, the corresponding displacement needs to be adjusted at runtime to actually correctly find the per-cpu __x86_call_depth value, otherwise the targeted address is wrong, leading to the page fault seen above. Fix the %rip-relative displacement of the copied CALL_DEPTH_ACCOUNT instruction (from ftrace_regs_caller) by calling text_poke_apply_relocation(), as it is done for example by the x86 BPF JIT compiler through x86_call_depth_emit_accounting(). This corrects both CALL_DEPTH_ACCOUNT slots, in ftrace_caller and ftrace_regs_caller. [ bp: Massage. ]

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: NULL Pointer Dereference

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
  • Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
  • Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.

More NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerabilities (CWE-476)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Recent NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerabilities

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