Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2024-26688 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 15th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-23950
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs,hugetlb: fix NULL pointer dereference in hugetlbs_fill_super When configuring a hugetlb filesystem via the fsconfig() syscall, there is a possible NULL dereference in hugetlbfs_fill_super() caused by assigning NULL to ctx->hstate…
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in hugetlbfs_parse_param() when the requested pagesize is non valid. E.g: Taking the following steps: fd = fsopen("hugetlbfs", FSOPEN_CLOEXEC); fsconfig(fd, FSCONFIG_SET_STRING, "pagesize", "1024", 0); fsconfig(fd, FSCONFIG_CMD_CREATE, NULL, NULL, 0); Given that the requested "pagesize" is invalid, ctxt->hstate will be replaced with NULL, losing its previous value, and we will print an error: ... ... case Opt_pagesize: ps = memparse(param->string, &rest); ctx->hstate = h; if (!ctx->hstate) { pr_err("Unsupported page size %lu MB\n", ps / SZ_1M); return -EINVAL; } return 0; ... ... This is a problem because later on, we will dereference ctxt->hstate in hugetlbfs_fill_super() ... ... sb->s_blocksize = huge_page_size(ctx->hstate); ... ... Causing below Oops. Fix this by replacing cxt->hstate value only when then pagesize is known to be valid. kernel: hugetlbfs: Unsupported page size 0 MB kernel: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000028 kernel: #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode kernel: #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page kernel: PGD 800000010f66c067 P4D 800000010f66c067 PUD 1b22f8067 PMD 0 kernel: Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI kernel: CPU: 4 PID: 5659 Comm: syscall Tainted: G E 6.8.0-rc2-default+ #22 5a47c3fef76212addcc6eb71344aabc35190ae8f kernel: Hardware name: Intel Corp. GROVEPORT/GROVEPORT, BIOS GVPRCRB1.86B.0016.D04.1705030402 05/03/2017 kernel: RIP: 0010:hugetlbfs_fill_super+0xb4/0x1a0 kernel: Code: 48 8b 3b e8 3e c6 ed ff 48 85 c0 48 89 45 20 0f 84 d6 00 00 00 48 b8 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 7f 4c 89 e7 49 89 44 24 20 48 8b 03 <8b> 48 28 b8 00 10 00 00 48 d3 e0 49 89 44 24 18 48 8b 03 8b 40 28 kernel: RSP: 0018:ffffbe9960fcbd48 EFLAGS: 00010246 kernel: RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff9af5272ae780 RCX: 0000000000372004 kernel: RDX: ffffffffffffffff RSI: ffffffffffffffff RDI: ffff9af555e9b000 kernel: RBP: ffff9af52ee66b00 R08: 0000000000000040 R09: 0000000000370004 kernel: R10: ffffbe9960fcbd48 R11: 0000000000000040 R12: ffff9af555e9b000 kernel: R13: ffffffffa66b86c0 R14: ffff9af507d2f400 R15: ffff9af507d2f400 kernel: FS: 00007ffbc0ba4740(0000) GS:ffff9b0bd7000000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 kernel: CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 kernel: CR2: 0000000000000028 CR3: 00000001b1ee0000 CR4: 00000000001506f0 kernel: Call Trace: kernel: <TASK> kernel: ? __die_body+0x1a/0x60 kernel: ? page_fault_oops+0x16f/0x4a0 kernel: ? search_bpf_extables+0x65/0x70 kernel: ? fixup_exception+0x22/0x310 kernel: ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 kernel: ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 kernel: ? __pfx_hugetlbfs_fill_super+0x10/0x10 kernel: ? hugetlbfs_fill_super+0xb4/0x1a0 kernel: ? hugetlbfs_fill_super+0x28/0x1a0 kernel: ? __pfx_hugetlbfs_fill_super+0x10/0x10 kernel: vfs_get_super+0x40/0xa0 kernel: ? __pfx_bpf_lsm_capable+0x10/0x10 kernel: vfs_get_tree+0x25/0xd0 kernel: vfs_cmd_create+0x64/0xe0 kernel: __x64_sys_fsconfig+0x395/0x410 kernel: do_syscall_64+0x80/0x160 kernel: ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x82/0x240 kernel: ? do_syscall_64+0x8d/0x160 kernel: ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x82/0x240 kernel: ? do_syscall_64+0x8d/0x160 kernel: ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 kernel: entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0x76 kernel: RIP: 0033:0x7ffbc0cb87c9 kernel: Code: 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 66 90 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 97 96 0d 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 kernel: RSP: 002b:00007ffc29d2f388 EFLAGS: 00000206 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000001af kernel: RAX: fffffffffff ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.
Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.
Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.
Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.
Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.