Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain low-privilege local shell access
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DeliveryTrigger AppArmor notification event via normal process activity
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ExploitNULL pointer dereference in notification handler
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ExecutionKernel panic
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ImpactFull system crash and denial of service
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Null pointer safety, defensive checks
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Impact The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires a local user account with at minimum low-privilege shell access (PR:L per CVSS vector) on a system running Ubuntu Linux 6.8 with Canonical's SAUCE patches - specifically Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble. AppArmor must be active, which is the default configuration on Ubuntu systems; no non-default configuration is required beyond having AppArmor operational. No network access, no user interaction from another party, and no elevated privileges are needed. What limits exploitation: (1) local access is mandatory - remote unauthenticated exploitation is not possible per AV:L; (2) the vulnerability is exclusive to Ubuntu's SAUCE-patched 6.8 kernel and does not affect upstream mainline or non-Ubuntu distributions; (3) impact is confined to availability - there is no known path to privilege escalation or data exfiltration from this bug alone. |
| Impact | The CVSS:3.1 vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H characterizes this as a low-complexity, local, low-privilege attack with complete availability loss but zero confidentiality or integrity impact. In practical terms, any authenticated shell user - including unprivileged container users or compromised service accounts - can crash the host kernel. No EPSS score was provided in the available data, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified probabilistically. Neither CISA KEV inclusion nor public exploit code has been identified, keeping real-world exploitation risk lower than the availability impact alone might suggest. The attack surface is constrained to systems running the Ubuntu 6.8 kernel with SAUCE patches (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Noble) and only matters where multi-tenant or hostile local user access is possible - shared servers, developer workstations, or cloud VMs with multiple tenants. On single-user systems, the practical risk is negligible. The CVSS score of 5.5 is appropriate: this is a real denial-of-service risk in multi-user deployments but not a critical priority for isolated single-tenant systems. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An unprivileged user with a local shell account on an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble) system running a vulnerable 6.8 SAUCE kernel crafts or triggers an AppArmor notification event through normal system interactions, causing the kernel's notification handler to dereference a NULL pointer. This immediately triggers a kernel panic, crashing the entire system and causing a denial of service for all users. No public exploit code has been identified, but the low-complexity trigger conditions suggest a proof-of-concept could be developed with moderate kernel familiarity. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – May 28, 2026
Kernel panic via NULL pointer dereference in Ubuntu Linux 6.8's AppArmor notification handler allows a locally authenticated, unprivileged user to crash the system. The flaw resides in Ubuntu-specific SAUCE patches - out-of-tree modifications maintained by Canonical - meaning the vulnerable code path does not exist in upstream mainline kernels. With a CVSS score of 5.5 and an availability-only impact, the practical consequence is a local denial-of-service: any low-privilege user with shell access can force a kernel panic. No active exploitation has been confirmed by CISA KEV and no public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
The primary fix is to apply the patched Ubuntu kernel provided by Canonical. The upstream fix commit is available at https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-kernel/ubuntu/+source/linux/+git/noble/commit/?id=406571d530ccdbae6119fe64ce9cf5c74160f20b for the Noble (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) kernel tree; however, the exact packaged kernel release version incorporating this fix has not been independently confirmed from a tagged release - monitor Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) for the official kernel update announcement. Until the patched kernel package is applied, a targeted compensating control is to disable AppArmor notifications if the feature is not operationally required: this removes the vulnerable code path without disabling AppArmor enforcement itself, though it will suppress notification events used by tools like aa-notify and any applications consuming AppArmor audit events. On systems where untrusted or multi-tenant local user access is not possible, the risk is minimal and patching can follow normal maintenance windows.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) describes the root cause: a code path in the AppArmor Linux Security Module's notification subsystem fails to validate a pointer before dereferencing it, triggering a kernel panic when the pointer is NULL. AppArmor is the mandatory access control framework enabled by default on Ubuntu systems. The vulnerable code is exclusive to Canonical's SAUCE (Sauce Applies Ubuntu Changes Everywhere) patch series carried in the Ubuntu 6.8 kernel tree for Noble (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS), as indicated by the 'noble' branch reference in the Launchpad commit URL. Because SAUCE patches are Ubuntu-specific additions not yet merged upstream, distributions tracking mainline Linux 6.8 are unaffected. The CPE string cpe:2.3:a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers Canonical's Ubuntu Linux product family broadly; the specific kernel version impacted is the 6.8 series shipping with Ubuntu Noble.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Primary rating from Vendor (canonical) · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorVendor: canonical
DescriptionCVE.org
Ubuntu Linux 6.8 contains SAUCE patches with a possible NULL pointer dereference in the handling of AppArmor notifications. The bug can be triggered by an unprivileged local user. This can lead to a kernel panic.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A null pointer dereference occurs when a program attempts to access memory through a pointer that has been set to NULL (address 0x0).
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
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CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
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