NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-93172

Vulnerability identifier: #VU150840

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 5.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2026-93172

CWE-ID: CWE-476

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local privileged user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to a null pointer dereference in free_area_init_core_hotplug when initializing per-CPU node statistics during memory hotplug. A local privileged user can initiate a memory hotplug operation that encounters a failed per_cpu_nodestats allocation to cause a denial of service.

Linux kernel
Debian Linux
Ubuntu
linux (Ubuntu package)
linux-aws (Ubuntu package)
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package)
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package)
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package)
linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu package)
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package)
linux (Debian package)

Install security update from vendor's repository.

linux (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42
linux-aws (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.17
linux-gcp (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1016.18
linux-oracle (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1015.16
linux-ibm (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.17
linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
linux-oem-7.0 (Ubuntu package) - update to 7.0.0-1017.17
linux (Debian package) - update to 6.12.111-1

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1017fe1c7f48e511c5a680e3057005daaff2f3a2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ebce860bdd7ae5e13002811bc9bbbf33fcfc221
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4cc5caef9a8d1894dfa31d84a0daa0ac1437dadc
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc3b5e6519b8df22d622a03eab6772784da97db4

• NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel mm
• Debian update for linux
• Ubuntu update for linux-oem-7.0
• Ubuntu update for linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp and more