NULL Pointer Dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-23332
Published: March 25, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU124515
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-23332
CWE-ID: CWE-476
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vendor: Linux Foundation
Affected software:
Linux kernel
Linux kernel
Detailed vulnerability description
The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a NULL pointer dereference in the intel_pstate CPU frequency driver when disabling turbo via the sysfs interface. A local user can write to the /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo file to cause a kernel crash.
The issue arises because all_cpu_data[] is dereferenced for CPUs that are not online, leading to a NULL pointer dereference when the system is booted with 'nosmt' or 'maxcpus' kernel parameters.
How to mitigate CVE-2026-23332
Install security update from vendor's repository.