NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel - CVE-2026-98477

Vulnerability identifier: #VU156777

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-2026-98477

CWE-ID: CWE-476

Exploitation vector: Local access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service through a kernel null pointer dereference.

The vulnerability exists due to a null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel performance-monitoring task-scheduling code when a null PMU context is passed to armv8pmu_sched_task() on systems using BRBE. A local user can trigger the affected scheduling path to cause a kernel oops and potentially disrupt system availability.

Linux kernel
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)

Install security update from vendor's repository.

Linux kernel - update to 7.0 rc3
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

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/249a2bd87a0e57dc28f36e992807edc9cae309b5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/36bb85cf36cab15fb611cb44b78a5df06e4e69a2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/98181f9721f75f1a544dc563b0d8fed1d5c398d5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b5409311b606d536cc485f3706c242c2afa93edb
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ec15f6a50183fc01f470af74ad49900fb3731fca

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