NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2026-43272

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ring-buffer: Fix possible dereference of uninitialized pointer There is a pointer head_page in rb_meta_validate_events() which is not initialized at the beginning of a function. This pointer can be dereferenced if there is a failure during reader page validation. In this case the control is passed to "invalid" label where the pointer is dereferenced in a loop. To fix the issue initialize orig_head and head_page before calling rb_validate_buffer. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with SVACE.

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 (4.5th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 4.5% 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-2026-43272: held from 0.001 to 0.002.

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

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-43272?
CVE-2026-43272 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-05-06.
How severe is CVE-2026-43272?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.