NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-72163
Published: August 16, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU143424
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 6.8 [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]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-72163
CWE-ID: CWE-476
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.
The vulnerability exists due to a null pointer dereference in ocfs2_assure_trans_credits() when completing a direct write over unwritten extents after a journal abort. A local user can trigger a direct write operation and cause the kernel to panic to cause a denial of service.
Exploitation requires an ocfs2 direct I/O write path where the journal aborts during I/O completion, such as after an I/O error.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2026-72163
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
External References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/253ed993e0b36997ec7b04c1ff76103b38241de2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2d80e9c56718435a9c9f5f24dbc954989aead579
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6ad7532a23bc94076efe9f1486dd7f7493c090ff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7146d191dae3a8efdb957993fb61a55713186266
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/942b818b396c24c452681803ff291552317d2ef1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bd73971fad89d5ee4ea0ba9b92d2ea08733c4a64
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f14aaaa130356ee4adb44de947c098637c70df8f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9ab30c96b0f00c20c6dac93681bdae3a033d229