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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-53338

| EUVDEUVD-2026-40972 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-07-01 Linux GHSA-fxch-pwp2-83j7
Denial Of Service Linux Null Pointer Dereference Red Hat Suse
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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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
4.1 MEDIUM

Requires specific Airoha hardware plus misconfigured DTS; DTS modification implies high-privilege or physical access, warranting AC:H and PR:H over the NVD-assigned AC:L/PR:L.

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

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

5
Analysis Generated
Jul 23, 2026 - 21:50 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Jul 23, 2026 - 21:38 NVD
5.5 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Jul 01, 2026 - 15:16 EUVD
CVE Published
Jul 01, 2026 - 13:32 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5
CVE Published
Jul 01, 2026 - 13:32 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionNVD

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

net: airoha: Add NULL check for of_reserved_mem_lookup() in airoha_qdma_init_hfwd_queues()

of_reserved_mem_lookup() may return NULL if the reserved memory region referenced by the "memory-region" phandle is not found in the reserved memory table (e.g. due to a misconfigured DTS or a removed memory-region node). The current code dereferences the returned pointer without checking for NULL, leading to a kernel NULL pointer dereference at the following lines:

dma_addr = rmem->base; // line 1156 num_desc = div_u64(rmem->size, buf_size); // line 1160

Add a NULL check after of_reserved_mem_lookup() and return -ENODEV if the lookup fails, which is consistent with the existing error handling for of_parse_phandle() failure in the same code block.

AnalysisAI

NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's Airoha QDMA network driver crashes the kernel when a misconfigured Device Tree Source (DTS) causes of_reserved_mem_lookup() to return NULL without a guard check. Systems running the net/airoha driver with a DTS referencing a non-existent or removed memory-region node in the reserved memory table trigger a kernel panic during driver initialization at airoha_qdma_init_hfwd_queues(). The impact is exclusively a local denial-of-service (system crash); no confidentiality or integrity compromise is possible. No public exploit exists and EPSS places exploitation probability at 0.15% (5th percentile), consistent with the highly specific hardware and configuration prerequisites.

Technical ContextAI

The vulnerability resides in drivers/net/ethernet/mediatek/airoha/airoha_qdma.c within the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. The Airoha QDMA driver supports hardware forward queue initialization and calls of_reserved_mem_lookup() to resolve a reserved DMA memory region via a Device Tree phandle. The Open Firmware/Device Tree subsystem function returns NULL when the referenced phandle does not correspond to any entry in the kernel's reserved memory table - for example, when the DTS is misconfigured or the memory-region node has been removed. The driver code then unconditionally dereferences the returned pointer to read rmem->base (line 1156) and rmem->size (line 1160), triggering a classic CWE-476 NULL pointer dereference. The fix adds a NULL guard and returns -ENODEV, consistent with adjacent error handling for of_parse_phandle() failures. Affected products per CPE: cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:*. Specific affected commit range begins at 3a1ce9e3d01bbf3912c3e3f81cb554d558eb715b.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is upgrading to a patched Linux kernel version: 6.18.36, 7.0.13, or 7.1 (and later). Fix commits are publicly available at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9f25118faa4dd2b6e3d14a03d123bbdbd59925d (6.x branch), https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/01f7d4b504580664d36faea5671cde5e3f0d8a5b (7.0.x branch), and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cdb96c42db7b256348f9b57718debfaa4bca6b39 (mainline). For systems that cannot be patched immediately, the effective workaround is ensuring the DTS memory-region phandle correctly references an existing entry in the reserved memory table, or removing the phandle if the hardware forward queue feature is not required - this prevents the driver from reaching the vulnerable code path entirely. Disabling or blacklisting the airoha kernel module (modprobe.blacklist=airoha) on any system where the hardware is not in use will also prevent exposure with no functional impact. Systems not equipped with Airoha QDMA hardware are unaffected and require no action.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 Not-Affected

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CVE-2026-53338 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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