NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2026-53204

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: firmware: stratix10-rsu: Fix NULL deref on rsu_send_msg() timeout in probe rsu_send_msg() can return -ETIMEDOUT when wait_for_completion_interruptible_timeout() fires while the SMC call is still pending. In stratix10_rsu_probe(), the error paths for COMMAND_RSU_DCMF_VERSION, COMMAND_RSU_DCMF_STATUS, COMMAND_RSU_MAX_RETRY and COMMAND_RSU_GET_SPT_TABLE call stratix10_svc_free_channel() - which sets chan->scl to NULL - but then fall through and queue the next request on the same channel. The next svc kthread that runs will dereference pdata->chan->scl in its receive callback path, triggering a NULL pointer dereference identical to the one fixed by commit c45f7263100c ("firmware: stratix10-rsu: Fix NULL pointer dereference when RSU is disabled") for the COMMAND_RSU_STATUS path. Apply the same cleanup pattern to the remaining failure paths: remove the async client, free the channel, and return early so no further messages are queued on a channel whose scl has been cleared. While at it, clean up stratix10_rsu_probe() in two ways without changing behavior: - Drop redundant zero-initialization of fields already cleared by devm_kzalloc(): client.receive_cb, status.* and spt0/1_address (INVALID_SPT_ADDRESS is 0x0). - Replace five identical 3-line error-cleanup blocks (stratix10_svc_remove_async_client() + stratix10_svc_free_channel() + return ret) with goto labels (remove_async_client, free_channel), matching the standard kernel resource-unwinding pattern and making it easier to extend the probe sequence without forgetting matching cleanup. Also move init_completion() next to mutex_init() so sync-primitive initialization is grouped before anything that could trigger a callback. --- v2: Add a minor clean-up of the function stratix10_rsu_probe() to have a centralize exit for all the rsu_send_async_msg() and rsu_send_msg().

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: 0.001 (4.0th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 4.0% 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-2026-53204: held from 0.001 to 0.001.

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

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 15847537b623f844d9a08da99ff4568315e1d4f8, 6.19, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 7.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-53204?
CVE-2026-53204 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-06-25.
How severe is CVE-2026-53204?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.