NULL pointer dereference in Linux
CVE-2026-64297
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: module: decompress: check return value of module_extend_max_pages() module_extend_max_pages() calls kvrealloc() internally and returns -ENOMEM on allocation failure. The return value is never checked. If the initial allocation fails, info->pages remains NULL and info->max_pages remains 0. Subsequent calls to module_get_next_page() will attempt to dynamically grow the array by calling module_extend_max_pages(info, 0) since info->used_pages is 0. This results in kvrealloc(NULL, 0) returning ZERO_SIZE_PTR, which is treated as a success, leading to a dereference of ZERO_SIZE_PTR and a kernel oops. Fix: add the missing error check after module_extend_max_pages() and return immediately on failure. This matches the pattern used by every other kvrealloc() caller in the module loading path. [Sami: Corrected the analysis in the commit message.]
EPSS: 0.002 (5.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
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.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 7.2-rc1, b1ae6dc41eaaa98bb75671e0f3665bfda248c3e7, 6.6.145
- Linux Linux_kernel
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-64297?
- CVE-2026-64297 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-07-25.
- How severe is CVE-2026-64297?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.