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Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-45621

| CVE-2026-64048 HIGH
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-07-19 Linux GHSA-942p-vjp4-xm8p
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.5 HIGH

Remote malicious peer triggers a deterministic kernel null-deref crash with no auth or user interaction, yielding availability-only impact (A:H); no confidentiality or integrity effect.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

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

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Jul 20, 2026 - 17:06 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Jul 20, 2026 - 15:22 NVD
7.5 (HIGH)
Patch available
Jul 19, 2026 - 17:03 EUVD
CVE Published
Jul 19, 2026 - 15:39 cve.org
HIGH 7.5
CVE Published
Jul 19, 2026 - 15:39 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

net/smc: reject CHID-0 ACCEPT that matches an empty ism_dev slot

On the SMC-D client, slot 0 of ini->ism_dev[]/ini->ism_chid[] is reserved for an SMC-Dv1 device. smc_find_ism_v2_device_clnt() populates V2 entries starting at index 1, so when no V1 device is selected slot 0 is left in its kzalloc()'ed state with ism_dev[0] NULL and ism_chid[0] 0.

smc_v2_determine_accepted_chid() then matches the peer's CHID against the array starting from index 0 using the CHID alone. A malicious peer replying to a SMC-Dv2-only proposal with d1.chid 0 matches the empty slot, ini->ism_selected becomes 0, and the subsequent ism_dev[0]->lgr_lock dereference in smc_conn_create() faults at offsetof(struct smcd_dev, lgr_lock) 0x68:

BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in _raw_spin_lock_bh+0x79/0xe0 Write of size 4 at addr 0000000000000068 by task exploit/144 Call Trace: _raw_spin_lock_bh smc_conn_create (net/smc/smc_core.c:1997) __smc_connect (net/smc/af_smc.c:1447) smc_connect (net/smc/af_smc.c:1720) __sys_connect __x64_sys_connect do_syscall_64

Require ism_dev[i] to be non-NULL before accepting a CHID match.

AnalysisAI

Remote denial of service in the Linux kernel's SMC-D (Shared Memory Communications over ISM) client allows a malicious peer to crash the system via a null-pointer dereference during SMC-Dv2 connection setup. When a client sends an SMC-Dv2-only proposal and no SMC-Dv1 device is selected, a peer that replies with an ACCEPT containing CHID value 0 matches the reserved empty slot 0 of the ism_dev[] array, causing a null-ptr-deref on ism_dev[0]->lgr_lock in smc_conn_create(). No public exploit identified at time of analysis; EPSS is low (0.17%) and it is not listed in CISA KEV, but the fix is upstream in the kernel stable tree.

Technical ContextAI

The flaw is in the kernel's net/smc subsystem, which implements Shared Memory Communications (SMC) - an RDMA/ISM-accelerated alternative to TCP defined in RFC 7609. Specifically it involves SMC-D, the variant that runs over IBM z/Architecture Internal Shared Memory (ISM) devices identified by a CHID (Channel ID). During client-side device selection, slot 0 of ini->ism_dev[] and ini->ism_chid[] is reserved for an SMC-Dv1 device; smc_find_ism_v2_device_clnt() populates V2 candidates starting at index 1. When no V1 device is chosen, slot 0 remains in its kzalloc()'ed zero state (ism_dev[0]NULL, ism_chid[0]0). The root cause is a class CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) - smc_v2_determine_accepted_chid() compares the peer-supplied CHID against the array from index 0 using only the CHID, so a peer-supplied CHID of 0 matches the empty reserved slot; the resulting ism_selected=0 leads to dereferencing NULL at offsetof(struct smcd_dev, lgr_lock)==0x68, caught here by KASAN. CPE data identifies the affected product generically as cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux, i.e. the mainline/stable Linux kernel.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: update to a fixed stable kernel - 6.1.175, 6.6.142, 6.12.92, 6.18.34, 7.0.11, or 7.1 (or later on your branch), which add the requirement that ism_dev[i] be non-NULL before accepting a CHID match; the corresponding upstream fix commits are available at git.kernel.org (e.g. https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6927cacf2b10d4fa80c1a2d407512ef9397c59c6 and the sibling backports listed in the EUVD). Distribution users should apply the vendor kernel update rebased on these commits and reboot. Where immediate patching is not possible and SMC is not required, the most effective compensating control is to disable SMC - unload/blacklist the smc kernel module (modprobe blacklist smc) or avoid enabling AF_SMC sockets - which removes the vulnerable code path entirely at the cost of losing SMC/RDMA acceleration; alternatively, restrict SMC-D peering to trusted networks/partners so a malicious peer cannot send the crafted CHID-0 ACCEPT, accepting that this does not fix the underlying null-deref if any untrusted peer can be reached.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
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

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EUVD-2026-45621 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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