Skip to main content

Linux Kernel EUVDEUVD-2026-49007

| CVE-2026-64295 MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2026-07-25 Linux GHSA-v5hf-7896-cmm7
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
Share

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
4.4 MEDIUM

Memory hotplug online operations require CAP_SYS_ADMIN in default configurations, warranting PR:H; impact is DoS-only with no confidentiality or integrity effect.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
4.1 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Red Hat
5.5 LOW
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
Aug 12, 2026 - 15:10 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 12, 2026 - 15:07 NVD
5.5 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Jul 25, 2026 - 11:18 EUVD
CVE Published
Jul 25, 2026 - 08:49 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5
CVE Published
Jul 25, 2026 - 08:49 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionNVD

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

mm: page_ext: add count limit to page_ext_iter_next to prevent invalid PFN access

The page_ext iteration API does not validate if the PFN still belongs to a valid section while advancing the iterator. When dynamically adding memory in the hotplug path, it can lead to a NULL pointer dereference during page_ext_lookup at the boundary of the last valid section when iterator count equals __pgcount.

The for_each_page_ext() macro calls page_ext_iter_next() as its loop increment. for_each_page_ext() does a "__page_ext = page_ext_iter_next(&__iter)" at the end. This causes page_ext_iter_next() to increment iter->index past __pgcount and call page_ext_lookup(start_pfn + __pgcount). During memory hotplug (online), the PFN at start_pfn + __pgcount may belong to a section that has not yet been initialized, causing page_ext_lookup() to trigger a NULL pointer dereference.

[ 14.555124][ T846] Call trace: [ 14.555125][ T846] lookup_page_ext+0x6c/0x108 (P) [ 14.555127][ T846] page_ext_lookup+0x30/0x3c [ 14.555129][ T846] __reset_page_owner+0x11c/0x260 [ 14.571201][ T846] __free_pages_ok+0x5e8/0x8e0 [ 14.571204][ T846] __free_pages_core+0x78/0xf0 [ 14.571206][ T846] generic_online_page+0x14/0x24 [ 14.597782][ T846] online_pages+0x178/0x30c [ 14.597784][ T846] memory_block_change_state+0x284/0x32c [ 14.597787][ T846] memory_subsys_online+0x4c/0x64 [ 14.597789][ T846] device_online+0x88/0xb0 [ 14.597791][ T846] online_memory_block+0x30/0x40 [ 14.597793][ T846] walk_memory_blocks+0xac/0xe8 [ 14.597794][ T846] add_memory_resource+0x280/0x298 [ 14.656161][ T846] add_memory+0x60/0x98

Move the iteration boundary enforcement inside the iterator functions, so callers cannot inadvertently access beyond the requested range.

AnalysisAI

NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's page_ext memory iteration API crashes systems during dynamic memory hotplug operations. The page_ext_iter_next() function fails to enforce the PFN boundary, advancing the iterator index past __pgcount and calling page_ext_lookup() on an uninitialized memory section, triggering a kernel panic. With EPSS at 0.21% (11th percentile) and no CISA KEV listing, real-world exploitation is low-probability and operationally constrained to environments actively performing memory hotplug, such as cloud hypervisors or NUMA-heavy servers with memory ballooning.

Technical ContextAI

The vulnerability resides in mm/page_ext.c, the Linux kernel subsystem providing per-page extension metadata used by features such as page owner tracking (page_owner). The for_each_page_ext() macro uses page_ext_iter_next() as its loop increment. The root cause (CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference) is that page_ext_iter_next() increments iter->index to equal __pgcount and then invokes page_ext_lookup(start_pfn + __pgcount) - a PFN that may belong to a memory section not yet initialized during a memory_block_change_state() hotplug online sequence. lookup_page_ext() subsequently dereferences a NULL pointer for the uninitialized section descriptor. The call trace in the description confirms the path: online_pages → generic_online_page → __free_pages_core → __free_pages_ok → __reset_page_owner → page_ext_lookup → lookup_page_ext. Affected products are identified via CPE as cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*. The fix moves boundary enforcement inside the iterator functions to prevent out-of-range PFN access by callers.

RemediationAI

Upgrade the Linux kernel to a fixed upstream stable version: 6.18.39 or later, or 7.1.4 or later, or 7.2-rc3 or later, per EUVD-2026-49007. The three stable backport fix commits are available directly at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8dcaa0f87a88d720d13106f3a306c6b61d189d86, https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ffd017237cfe99e6e5602ab14179b0e6878a0840, and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/377b1cd6bbcf327338cd951cc2fd74bc75540235. For systems where an immediate kernel upgrade is not feasible, disabling the page owner tracking feature by booting with the kernel parameter page_owner=off reduces the exposure through __reset_page_owner, though it does not eliminate all code paths through for_each_page_ext(); this workaround trades observability for stability. Additionally, restricting write access to /sys/devices/system/memory/*/state to root-only (the default on most distributions) limits who can initiate the hotplug events that trigger the vulnerable path. Downstream distribution advisories (Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE, Debian) should be monitored for vendor-specific backport releases.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
openSUSE Tumbleweed Fixed
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

Share

EUVD-2026-49007 vulnerability details – vuln.today

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy