NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-97416
Published: September 25, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU152049
CSH Severity: Low
CVSS v4: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-97416
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 btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() when processing corrupted Btrfs metadata during a balance operation. A local user can trigger a Btrfs balance operation on a filesystem whose chunk tree contains a chunk without a corresponding block group to cause a denial of service.
The issue occurs when CONFIG_BTRFS_ASSERT is disabled.
Affected software
Linux kernel
How to mitigate CVE-2026-97416
Install security update from vendor's repository.
Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3