VulnerabilityPublished 19 Jul 2026

CVE-2026-64141: Linux kernel · ksmbd: fix null pointer dereference in compare_guid_key()

Source GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 12:55 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 49% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
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: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
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 19 Jul 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-5c3g-3v2r-672g

What to do

AI-suggested

Until a fix is applied, avoid using SMB shares with 'durable handles = yes' if possible, or restrict access to trusted clients to reduce risk. Monitor vendor channels for official patches addressing this issue.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: fix null pointer dereference in compare_guid_key() session_fd_check() walks the per-inode m_op_list during durable-handle session teardown and sets op->conn = NULL for every opinfo whose conn matched the closing session's connection. The matching opinfo, however, stays linked in its per-ClientGuid lease_table_list entry's lb->lease_list because destroy_lease_table() only runs on full TCP-connection teardown, not on SESSION_LOGOFF. If the same TCP connection then negotiates a fresh session with the same ClientGuid (ClientGuid is bound to NEGOTIATE, not the session, and is unchanged across LOGOFF + SETUP) and issues a SMB2 CREATE with a lease context on a different inode, find_same_lease_key() walks lb->lease_list, reaches the stale opinfo, and calls compare_guid_key(), which unconditionally dereferences opinfo->conn->ClientGUID. The conn pointer is NULL and the kernel panics. Reproducer requires only a successful SMB2 SESSION_SETUP and a share configured with 'durable handles = yes'. KASAN report on mainline 70390501d194: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000069: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000348-0x000000000000034f] Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work RIP: 0010:bcmp+0x5b/0x230 Call Trace: compare_guid_key+0x4b/0xd0 find_same_lease_key+0x324/0x690 smb2_open+0x6aea/0x8e60 handle_ksmbd_work+0x796/0xee0 ... Faulting address 0x348 is the offset of ClientGUID within struct ksmbd_conn, confirming opinfo->conn was NULL. Read opinfo->conn once and bail out if it has been cleared by a concurrent session_fd_check(). A half-detached opinfo cannot be the owner of an active lease, so returning 0 is the correct match result.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability causes a kernel panic (system crash) due to a null pointer dereference in the ksmbd SMB server component. This results in denial of service on affected systems. No information about privilege escalation or code execution is provided.

Summary

The vulnerability in the Linux kernel's ksmbd server involves a null pointer dereference in the compare_guid_key() function. During session teardown, session_fd_check() clears the connection pointer in operation info structures but leaves them linked in lease tables. If a new session with the same ClientGuid is established over the same TCP connection and issues an SMB2 CREATE with a lease context on a different inode, find_same_lease_key() may access a stale opinfo with a NULL connection pointer. This causes compare_guid_key() to dereference a NULL pointer, resulting in a kernel panic. The fix involves reading the connection pointer once and returning early if it is NULL, preventing the panic.

References

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