NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-72161

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Main Vulnerability Database Vulnerabilities #VU143439

NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-72161

Published: August 16, 2026


Vulnerability identifier: #VU143439
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-2026-72161
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_checkpoint_inode() when evicting cached inodes during unmount. A local user can trigger inode eviction after journal shutdown to cause a denial of service.

The issue occurs because the journal may already have been freed and set to NULL during shutdown before remaining cached inodes are evicted.


Affected software

Linux kernel
Ubuntu
linux-gcp-7.0 (Ubuntu package)
linux-azure-7.0 (Ubuntu package)

How to mitigate CVE-2026-72161

Install security update from vendor's repository.

Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
linux-gcp-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 7.0.0-38.38~24.04.4, 7.0.0-1013.13~24.04.1, 7.0.0-1014.14~24.04.1
linux-azure-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 7.0.0-1016.16~24.04.1, 7.0.0-1017.17~24.04.1

External References

Related Security Bulletins