Not ratedCVE-2026-89966

    Linux Kernel: NULL Pointer Dereference (CVE-2026-89966)

    Published Last modified Sources: Ubuntu, BSI, CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb_cma: fix null nodemask dereference in hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio alloc_buddy_hugetlb_folio_with_mpol() can pass a NULL nodemask to alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() as a fallback to allocate from all nodes. If order is gigantic, alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() propagates the NULL nodemask down to hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() via alloc_gigantic_frozen_folio().

    Update Linux Kernel to version 7.2.5, Linux Kernel to version 7.3.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.19..7.2.5
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 7.2.5
    • Linux Kernel 7.3

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    Metrics

    —

    Priority

    No value is available for this vulnerability.

    —

    CVSS v3

    No value is available for this vulnerability.

    0.2 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 9.6

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Not rated
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    26.83 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.2 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    9.6
    Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb_cma: fix null nodemask dereference in hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio alloc_buddy_hugetlb_folio_with_mpol() can pass a NULL nodemask to alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() as a fallback to allocate from all nodes. If order is gigantic, alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() propagates the NULL nodemask down to hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() via alloc_gigantic_frozen_folio(). Additionally, hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() previously attempted allocation on hugetlb_cma[nid] without verifying if nid is included in the caller's nodemask. Adding a node_isset(nid, *nodemask) check ensures the initial preferred node allocation honors the memory policy / nodemask. However, hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() dereferences the nodemask in node_isset(nid, *nodemask) and for_each_node_mask(node, *nodemask), leading to a null pointer dereference kernel panic when nodemask is NULL. Fix this by checking if nodemask is NULL in hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() and defaulting it to cpuset_current_mems_allowed. Enclose the allocation attempts within the cpuset seqcount retry loop so that if the cpuset changes concurrently during allocation, the attempts are retried using the updated nodemask. This ensures that the initial node check and fallback loop safely honor the task's cpuset without violating cpuset constraints or causing NULL pointer dereferences or unexpected allocation failures. From a userspace perspective, this bug allows an unprivileged user to crash the kernel (trigger a panic) by requesting a gigantic hugepage allocation with MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY on a system where CMA is only configured on a subset of NUMA nodes. This can be reproduced by booting a VM with two NUMA nodes, restricting CMA to Node 1 (e.g., hugetlb_cma=1:1G default_hugepagesz=1G hugepagesz=1G hugepages=0), and running a program that allocates a 1GB hugepage area without reserving, restricts allocation to Node 0 using mbind() with MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY, and triggers a page fault: void *ptr = mmap(NULL, 1UL << 30, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_HUGETLB | MAP_HUGE_1GB | MAP_NORESERVE, -1, 0); unsigned long nodemask = 1; /* Node 0 */ mbind(ptr, 1UL << 30, MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY, &nodemask, sizeof(nodemask) * 8, 0); memset(ptr, 0, 1UL << 30); /* Trigger fault */ This results in a NULL pointer dereference: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI RIP: 0010:hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio+0x75/0x120 Call Trace: <TASK> only_alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio.isra.0+0x2c/0x160 alloc_surplus_hugetlb_folio+0x6d/0x100 alloc_hugetlb_folio+0x3c5/0x660 hugetlb_no_page+0x3d9/0x650

    Source: Ubuntu Security Notices, BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 6.19 – < 7.2.5
    • —
    • 7.2.5
    • 7.3

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxubuntulinuxresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-gcpresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-hwe-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-ibmresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-oem-7.0resolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-oracleresolute

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedLinux

      1 individual change: Affected versions (publisher)

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      Affected value modified. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/89xxx/CVE-2026-89966.json">CVE-2026-89966</a>

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    2. ReceivedLinux

      Description added or changed

      Show 4 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Descriptionadded
      —
      In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb_cma: fix null nodemask dereference in hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio alloc_buddy_hugetlb_folio_with_mpol() can pass a NULL nodemask to alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() as a fallback to allocate from all nodes. If order is gigantic, alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() propagates the NULL nodemask down to hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() via alloc_gigantic_frozen_folio(). Additionally, hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() previously attempted allocation on hugetlb_cma[nid] without verifying if nid is included in the caller's nodemask. Adding a node_isset(nid, *nodemask) check ensures the initial preferred node allocation honors the memory policy / nodemask. However, hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() dereferences the nodemask in node_isset(nid, *nodemask) and for_each_node_mask(node, *nodemask), leading to a null pointer dereference kernel panic when nodemask is NULL. Fix this by checking if nodemask is NULL in hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() and defaulting it to cpuset_current_mems_allowed. Enclose the allocation attempts within the cpuset seqcount retry loop so that if the cpuset changes concurrently during allocation, the attempts are retried using the updated nodemask. This ensures that the initial node check and fallback loop safely honor the task's cpuset without violating cpuset constraints or causing NULL pointer dereferences or unexpected allocation failures. From a userspace perspective, this bug allows an unprivileged user to crash the kernel (trigger a panic) by requesting a gigantic hugepage allocation with MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY on a system where CMA is only configured on a subset of NUMA nodes. This can be reproduced by booting a VM with two NUMA nodes, restricting CMA to Node 1 (e.g., hugetlb_cma=1:1G default_hugepagesz=1G hugepagesz=1G hugepages=0), and running a program that allocates a 1GB hugepage area without reserving, restricts allocation to Node 0 using mbind() with MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY, and triggers a page fault: void *ptr = mmap(NULL, 1UL << 30, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_HUGETLB | MAP_HUGE_1GB | MAP_NORESERVE, -1, 0); unsigned long nodemask = 1; /* Node 0 */ mbind(ptr, 1UL << 30, MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY, &nodemask, sizeof(nodemask) * 8, 0); memset(ptr, 0, 1UL << 30); /* Trigger fault */ This results in a NULL pointer dereference: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI RIP: 0010:hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio+0x75/0x120 Call Trace: <TASK> only_alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio.isra.0+0x2c/0x160 alloc_surplus_hugetlb_folio+0x6d/0x100 alloc_hugetlb_folio+0x3c5/0x660 hugetlb_no_page+0x3d9/0x650
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/89xxx/CVE-2026-89966.json">CVE-2026-89966</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/10f616ef06c5bd2d656a0eebaf73f9b09d150c24
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7b8a8ae4dd176a232e973017d2aa3c536a7275e2

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

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