NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2026-31438

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix kernel BUG in netfs_limit_iter() for ITER_KVEC iterators When a process crashes and the kernel writes a core dump to a 9P filesystem, __kernel_write() creates an ITER_KVEC iterator. This iterator reaches netfs_limit_iter() via netfs_unbuffered_write(), which only handles ITER_FOLIOQ, ITER_BVEC and ITER_XARRAY iterator types, hitting the BUG() for any other type. Fix this by adding netfs_limit_kvec() following the same pattern as netfs_limit_bvec(), since both kvec and bvec are simple segment arrays with pointer and length fields. Dispatch it from netfs_limit_iter() when the iterator type is ITER_KVEC.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (4.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 5th percentile — 4.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-31438: held from 0.001 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions cae932d3aee55035a54415dcea8e7ecf2ec469b5, 6.8, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 7.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-31438?
CVE-2026-31438 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-04-22.
How severe is CVE-2026-31438?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.