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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-64417 json

mm: shrinker: fix NULL pointer dereference in debugfs

published 2026-07-25 3 mo ago modified 2026-09-04 2 mo ago also EUVD-2026-48961

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm: shrinker: fix NULL pointer dereference in debugfs

shrinker_debugfs_add() creates both "count" and "scan" debugfs files unconditionally.

That assumes every shrinker implements both count_objects() and scan_objects(), which is not guaranteed. For example, the xen-backend shrinker sets count_objects() but leaves scan_objects() NULL, so writing to its scan file calls through a NULL function pointer and panics the kernel:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 RIP: 0010:0x0 Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at 0xffffffffffffffd6. Call Trace: <TASK> shrinker_debugfs_scan_write+0x12e/0x270 full_proxy_write+0x5f/0x90 vfs_write+0xde/0x420 ? filp_flush+0x75/0x90 ? filp_close+0x1d/0x30 ? do_dup2+0xb8/0x120 ksys_write+0x68/0xf0 ? filp_flush+0x75/0x90 do_syscall_64+0xb3/0x5b0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

The count path has the same issue in principle if a shrinker omits count_objects().

To fix it, only create "count" and "scan" debugfs files when the corresponding callbacks are present.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.178, 6.6.145, 6.12.96, 6.18.39, 7.1.4, 7.2
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.180-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.96-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.1.4-1
  • linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.100-1~deb12u1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64417

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-147.147
  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-31.31
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1067.70
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1012.12
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1071.79
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1011.11
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1066.74
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1006.7

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64417

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.1.7-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11476-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-64417 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: mm: shrinker: fix NULL pointer dereference in debugfs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.