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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-53289

| EUVDEUVD-2026-39894 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-06-26 Linux GHSA-59wv-wqhp-c4vv
Denial Of Service Linux Null Pointer Dereference Red Hat Suse
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Gain local access to host
  2. Delivery
    Initiate NVM firmware update via nvmupdate64e
  3. Exploit
    EMP reset triggers ice_service_task during Admin Queue transitional state
  4. Execution
    ice_vf_rebuild_vsi() fails silently, txq_map/rxq_map zeroed
  5. Persist
    ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild() called unconditionally
  6. Impact
    NULL dereference in ice_ena_vf_q_mappings() crashes kernel

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
CWE-476
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.

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Exploitation Conditions

Three simultaneous conditions are required: (1) the host must be running an Intel E800-series NIC (ice driver) with SR-IOV enabled and at least one active Virtual Function configured - systems without this hardware or without SR-IOV are entirely unaffected; (2) an NVM firmware update must be actively in progress via nvmupdate64e, specifically during the firmware transitional state where Admin Queue commands (ice_add_vsi, ice_cfg_vsi_lan) return errors; (3) a VF reset event must be processed by the ice_service_task kernel worker thread concurrently with the failing Admin Queue state. Local access with low privileges (PR:L per CVSS vector) is required to influence VF state or initiate firmware updates. No remote or unauthenticated exploitation path exists. The crash is not reproducible without the concurrent NVM update condition, which significantly limits opportunistic exploitation.
Impact

The NVD-assigned CVSS 3.1 score of 5.5 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) correctly reflects local-only, low-privilege access with purely availability impact. However, AC:L may overstate exploitability: the crash only occurs when a concurrent NVM firmware update is actively in progress, a condition beyond typical attacker control, suggesting AC:H is a more precise representation. EPSS at 0.17% (7th percentile) is consistent with the narrow triggering window and specialized hardware requirement. CISA KEV status is not confirmed in the provided data, meaning active exploitation in the wild is not established. No POC code is identified. Real-world risk is meaningful only for enterprise or data center operators running Intel E800-series NICs with SR-IOV and who perform live NVM firmware updates without first disabling VFs - a specific but not uncommon operational pattern. For all other deployments, this vulnerability is not reachable.
Exploit ScenarioDerived

A local low-privileged process on an enterprise server equipped with an Intel E810 NIC initiates or awaits an NVM firmware update via nvmupdate64e. While the firmware Admin Queue is in a transitional state, the ice_service_task worker processes an EMP reset, triggering ice_reset_all_vfs(). The VSI rebuild for one or more VFs fails silently - ice_vf_rebuild_vsi() returns an error that is discarded - leaving txq_map as NULL. The unconditional subsequent call to ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild() dereferences the NULL txq_map pointer in ice_ena_vf_q_mappings(), generating an immediate kernel page fault that crashes the host. No public exploit code exists for this scenario.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Jul 08, 2026

NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel ice driver's ice_reset_all_vfs() function crashes the host kernel when a Virtual Function VSI rebuild fails during concurrent NVM firmware updates on Intel E800-series NICs. Systems with SR-IOV enabled on Intel E800-series adapters running kernel versions from 5.8 through the patched stable releases are affected. An attacker or privileged local process can trigger a kernel panic by initiating a VF reset while nvmupdate64e has placed Admin Queue commands in a transitional failure state, resulting in complete host denial of service. No public exploit exists and EPSS is negligible at 0.17% (7th percentile); CISA KEV listing is absent.

RemediationAI

Upgrade to a patched stable kernel: Linux 6.1.175, 6.6.141, 6.12.91, 6.18.33, 7.0.10, or 7.1, each of which contains a backport of the fix. The relevant upstream fix commits are acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 (https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19), 3ad2471e61e9f0c4d25046d08e3d747501c3b0dd, 4c2ac52eeeb672624b06c7a135301d7b8a21d52e, 1e9185b13ce57b86844447e092e58abb3be849b1, 429024f3a407e4137aee825c2a6be0aba857937d, and 54ef02487914c24170c7e1c061e45212dc55365e. If patching is not immediately feasible, the most effective compensating control is to disable all SR-IOV VFs (set SRIOV_NUMVFS to 0 via sysfs) before performing any NVM firmware updates via nvmupdate64e, then re-enable VFs after the update completes - this removes the race condition entirely with no permanent functional trade-off. Alternatively, disabling SR-IOV globally eliminates the vulnerable code path but removes VF functionality permanently. Affected VFs on an unpatched system that have entered the failed state can be recovered without a host reboot via a PCI reset of the VF through sysfs or driver rebind.

Affected VersionsENISA

Linux patch: 0
Linux patch: 7.0.10
Linux 5.8
Linux 12bb018c538c3b9a050f69f62fa09fa6c9160bca <1e9185b13ce57b86844447e092e58abb3be849b1
Linux patch: 6.6.141
Linux patch: 7.1
Linux patch: 6.18.33
Linux 12bb018c538c3b9a050f69f62fa09fa6c9160bca <3ad2471e61e9f0c4d25046d08e3d747501c3b0dd
Linux patch: 6.12.91
Linux patch: 6.1.175
Linux 12bb018c538c3b9a050f69f62fa09fa6c9160bca <4c2ac52eeeb672624b06c7a135301d7b8a21d52e
Linux 12bb018c538c3b9a050f69f62fa09fa6c9160bca <429024f3a407e4137aee825c2a6be0aba857937d
Linux 12bb018c538c3b9a050f69f62fa09fa6c9160bca <acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19
Linux 12bb018c538c3b9a050f69f62fa09fa6c9160bca <54ef02487914c24170c7e1c061e45212dc55365e

Affected Packages

euvd linux no fix

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.

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Technical ContextAI · show details

The ice driver manages Intel Ethernet Controller E800-series NICs and supports SR-IOV, enabling Virtual Function (VF) creation. When ice_reset_all_vfs() processes a VF reset during an active NVM firmware update by nvmupdate64e, the firmware's transitional state causes Admin Queue commands ice_add_vsi and ice_cfg_vsi_lan to fail inside ice_vsi_rebuild(). The error path of ice_vsi_rebuild() tears down the VSI structure, zeroing txq_map and rxq_map (at offset 0x4b8 in ice_vsi). Because ice_reset_all_vfs() ignores the return value of ice_vf_rebuild_vsi(), it unconditionally proceeds to call ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild(), which invokes ice_ena_vf_q_mappings() and dereferences vsi->txq_map[0] - a NULL pointer - causing an immediate kernel page fault (CWE-476). The single-VF path ice_reset_vf() already handled this correctly by checking the return value of ice_vf_reconfig_vsi(); the all-VF path lacked this guard. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers all Linux platforms carrying the affected ice driver code introduced by commit 12bb018c538c.

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI 4.7 MEDIUM

AC:H because crash requires concurrent NVM update in transitional state, a condition beyond attacker control; no C/I impact.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE MEDIUM
Red Hat 5.5 LOW

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Jul 08, 2026 - 04:07 NVD
5.5 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Jun 26, 2026 - 21:02 EUVD
CVE Published
Jun 26, 2026 - 19:40 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5
CVE Published
Jun 26, 2026 - 19:40 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionNVD

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

ice: fix NULL pointer dereference in ice_reset_all_vfs()

ice_reset_all_vfs() ignores the return value of ice_vf_rebuild_vsi(). When the VSI rebuild fails (e.g. during NVM firmware update via nvmupdate64e), ice_vsi_rebuild() tears down the VSI on its error path, leaving txq_map and rxq_map as NULL. The subsequent unconditional call to ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild() leads to a NULL pointer dereference in ice_ena_vf_q_mappings() when it accesses vsi->txq_map[0].

The single-VF reset path in ice_reset_vf() already handles this correctly by checking the return value of ice_vf_reconfig_vsi() and skipping ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild() on failure.

Apply the same pattern to ice_reset_all_vfs(): check the return value of ice_vf_rebuild_vsi() and skip ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild() and ice_eswitch_attach_vf() on failure. The VF is left safely disabled (ICE_VF_STATE_INIT not set, VFGEN_RSTAT not set to VFACTIVE) and can be recovered via a VFLR triggered by a PCI reset of the VF (sysfs reset or driver rebind).

Note that this patch does not prevent the VF VSI rebuild from failing during NVM update - the underlying cause is firmware being in a transitional state while the EMP reset is processed, which can cause Admin Queue commands (ice_add_vsi, ice_cfg_vsi_lan) to fail. This patch only prevents the subsequent NULL pointer dereference that crashes the kernel when the rebuild does fail.

crash> bt PID: 50795 TASK: ff34c9ee708dc680 CPU: 1 COMMAND: "kworker/u512:5" #0 [ff72159bcfe5bb50] machine_kexec at ffffffffaa8850ee #1 [ff72159bcfe5bba8] __crash_kexec at ffffffffaaa15fba #2 [ff72159bcfe5bc68] crash_kexec at ffffffffaaa16540 #3 [ff72159bcfe5bc70] oops_end at ffffffffaa837eda #4 [ff72159bcfe5bc90] page_fault_oops at ffffffffaa893997 #5 [ff72159bcfe5bce8] exc_page_fault at ffffffffab528595 #6 [ff72159bcfe5bd10] asm_exc_page_fault at ffffffffab600bb2 [exception RIP: ice_ena_vf_q_mappings+0x79] RIP: ffffffffc0a85b29 RSP: ff72159bcfe5bdc8 RFLAGS: 00010206 RAX: 00000000000f0000 RBX: ff34c9efc9c00000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000010 RDI: ff34c9efc9c00000 RBP: ff34c9efc27d4828 R8: 0000000000000093 R9: 0000000000000040 R10: ff34c9efc27d4828 R11: 0000000000000040 R12: 0000000000100000 R13: 0000000000000010 R14: R15: ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffffff CS: 0010 SS: 0018 #7 [ff72159bcfe5bdf8] ice_sriov_post_vsi_rebuild at ffffffffc0a85e2e [ice] #8 [ff72159bcfe5be08] ice_reset_all_vfs at ffffffffc0a920b4 [ice] #9 [ff72159bcfe5be48] ice_service_task at ffffffffc0a31519 [ice] #10 [ff72159bcfe5be88] process_one_work at ffffffffaa93dca4 #11 [ff72159bcfe5bec8] worker_thread at ffffffffaa93e9de #12 [ff72159bcfe5bf18] kthread at ffffffffaa946663 #13 [ff72159bcfe5bf50] ret_from_fork at ffffffffaa8086b9

The panic occurs attempting to dereference the NULL pointer in RDX at ice_sriov.c:294, which loads vsi->txq_map (offset 0x4b8 in ice_vsi).

The faulting VSI is an allocated slab object but not fully initialized after a failed ice_vsi_rebuild():

crash> struct ice_vsi 0xff34c9efc27d4828 netdev = 0x0, rx_rings = 0x0, tx_rings = 0x0, q_vectors = 0x0, txq_map = 0x0, rxq_map = 0x0, alloc_txq = 0x10, num_txq = 0x10, alloc_rxq = 0x10, num_rxq = 0x10,

The nvmupdate64e process was performing NVM firmware update:

crash> bt 0xff34c9edd1a30000 PID: 49858 TASK: ff34c9edd1a30000 CPU: 1 COMMAND: "nvmupdate64e" #0 [ff72159bcd617618] __schedule at ffffffffab5333f8 #4 [ff72159bcd617750] ice_sq_send_cmd at ffffffffc0a35347 [ice] #5 [ff72159bcd6177a8] ice_sq_send_cmd_retry at ffffffffc0a35b47 [ice] #6 [ff72159bcd617810] ice_aq_send_cmd at ffffffffc0a38018 [ice] #7 [ff72159bcd617848] ice_aq_read_nvm at ffffffffc0a40254 [ice] #8 ---truncated---

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 93% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
enterprise/datacenter Intel E800-series NIC, SR-IOV required
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS MSRC Vendor VulDB

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.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Defer
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

28
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +28
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Null Pointer Dereference MEDIUM

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 MEDIUM

Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.

Same weakness CWE-476 – NULL Pointer Dereference

View all
CVE-2016-0742 HIGH
7.5
CVE-2014-3470 MEDIUM
4.3
CVE-2020-1967 HIGH POC
7.5
CVE-2017-3730 HIGH POC
7.5
CVE-2017-3169 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2016-4957 HIGH
7.5
CVE-2021-3449 MEDIUM
5.9
CVE-2015-3194 HIGH
7.5

Same technique Denial Of Service

View all
CVE-2015-5119 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2011-2462 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2011-0611 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2012-1889 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2012-0507 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2014-1761 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2015-5122 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2011-0609 HIGH POC
7.8

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Affected

References

Advisories & patches
ADVISORY https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53289 ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8566-1 ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8567-1 ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8568-1 ADVISORY https://vuldb.com/vuln/374363 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1e9185b13ce57b86844447e092e58abb3be849b1 REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3ad2471e61e9f0c4d25046d08e3d747501c3b0dd REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/429024f3a407e4137aee825c2a6be0aba857937d REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4c2ac52eeeb672624b06c7a135301d7b8a21d52e REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/54ef02487914c24170c7e1c061e45212dc55365e REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19

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