Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-26796

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 6.6 – 6.6.21

Published
04 April 2024
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0022 13th percentile
Risk Priority 42 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-26796 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 13th 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

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drivers: perf: ctr_get_width function for legacy is not defined With parameters CONFIG_RISCV_PMU_LEGACY=y and CONFIG_RISCV_PMU_SBI=n linux kernel crashes when you try perf record: $ perf record ls [ 46.749286] Unable to…

more

handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 [ 46.750199] Oops [#1] [ 46.750342] Modules linked in: [ 46.750608] CPU: 0 PID: 107 Comm: perf-exec Not tainted 6.6.0 #2 [ 46.750906] Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT) [ 46.751184] epc : 0x0 [ 46.751430] ra : arch_perf_update_userpage+0x54/0x13e [ 46.751680] epc : 0000000000000000 ra : ffffffff8072ee52 sp : ff2000000022b8f0 [ 46.751958] gp : ffffffff81505988 tp : ff6000000290d400 t0 : ff2000000022b9c0 [ 46.752229] t1 : 0000000000000001 t2 : 0000000000000003 s0 : ff2000000022b930 [ 46.752451] s1 : ff600000028fb000 a0 : 0000000000000000 a1 : ff600000028fb000 [ 46.752673] a2 : 0000000ae2751268 a3 : 00000000004fb708 a4 : 0000000000000004 [ 46.752895] a5 : 0000000000000000 a6 : 000000000017ffe3 a7 : 00000000000000d2 [ 46.753117] s2 : ff600000028fb000 s3 : 0000000ae2751268 s4 : 0000000000000000 [ 46.753338] s5 : ffffffff8153e290 s6 : ff600000863b9000 s7 : ff60000002961078 [ 46.753562] s8 : ff60000002961048 s9 : ff60000002961058 s10: 0000000000000001 [ 46.753783] s11: 0000000000000018 t3 : ffffffffffffffff t4 : ffffffffffffffff [ 46.754005] t5 : ff6000000292270c t6 : ff2000000022bb30 [ 46.754179] status: 0000000200000100 badaddr: 0000000000000000 cause: 000000000000000c [ 46.754653] Code: Unable to access instruction at 0xffffffffffffffec. [ 46.754939] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- [ 46.755131] note: perf-exec[107] exited with irqs disabled [ 46.755546] note: perf-exec[107] exited with preempt_count 4 This happens because in the legacy case the ctr_get_width function was not defined, but it is used in arch_perf_update_userpage. Also remove extra check in riscv_pmu_ctr_get_width_mask

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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CVE-2024-46727Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-38053Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53364Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.8 · 6.6 — 6.6.21 · 6.7 — 6.7.9

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

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.

finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References