VulnerabilityPublished 25 Jun 2026Updated 7 Jul 2026

CVE-2026-53158: Linux kernel · NULL Pointer Dereference

Source GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 12:55 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 2% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Jun 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-j24m-w36c-325g

What to do

AI-suggested

A fix has been implemented in the Linux kernel to reorder initialization steps and add a NULL pointer check in the fastrpc rpmsg callback. Users should update to the fixed kernel version containing this patch. Patch status is not explicitly confirmed in the provided data; therefore, check the official Linux kernel vendor advisory or source repository for the exact fixed version and apply the update accordingly.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: misc: fastrpc: Fix NULL pointer dereference in rpmsg callback A NULL pointer dereference was observed on Hawi at boot when the DSP sends a glink message before fastrpc_rpmsg_probe() has completed initialization: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000178 pc : _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x34/0x8c lr : fastrpc_rpmsg_callback+0x3c/0xcc [fastrpc] ... Call trace: _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x34/0x8c (P) fastrpc_rpmsg_callback+0x3c/0xcc [fastrpc] qcom_glink_native_rx+0x538/0x6a4 qcom_glink_smem_intr+0x14/0x24 [qcom_glink_smem] The faulting address 0x178 corresponds to the lock variable inside struct fastrpc_channel_ctx, confirming that cctx is NULL when fastrpc_rpmsg_callback() attempts to take the spinlock. There are two issues here. First, dev_set_drvdata() is called before spin_lock_init() and idr_init(), leaving a window where the callback can retrieve a valid cctx pointer but operate on an uninitialized spinlock. Second, the rpmsg channel becomes live as soon as the driver is bound, so fastrpc_rpmsg_callback() can fire before dev_set_drvdata() is called at all, resulting in dev_get_drvdata() returning NULL. Fix both issues by moving all cctx initialization ahead of dev_set_drvdata() so the structure is fully initialized before it becomes visible to the callback, and add a NULL check in fastrpc_rpmsg_callback() as a guard against any remaining window.

Impact

This vulnerability causes a kernel NULL pointer dereference, leading to a kernel crash (panic) during system boot on affected devices. This results in denial of service by preventing the system from booting properly. There is no indication of privilege escalation or code execution from the provided data.

Summary

The Linux kernel fastrpc driver had a vulnerability where the rpmsg callback could dereference a NULL pointer due to a race condition during initialization. Specifically, dev_set_drvdata() was called before spin_lock_init() and idr_init(), allowing the callback to access a partially initialized context structure or NULL pointer. Additionally, the rpmsg channel becomes active as soon as the driver binds, so the callback could be triggered before dev_set_drvdata() is called, resulting in a NULL pointer dereference. The patch moves all context initialization before dev_set_drvdata() and adds a NULL check in the callback to prevent this.

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 Jul 2026, 22:37 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats