Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-26881

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 5.14 – 5.15.153

Published
17 April 2024
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0069 50th percentile
Risk Priority 58 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-2024-26881 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked in the top 50% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; 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: net: hns3: fix kernel crash when 1588 is received on HIP08 devices The HIP08 devices does not register the ptp devices, so the hdev->ptp is NULL, but the hardware can…

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receive 1588 messages, and set the HNS3_RXD_TS_VLD_B bit, so, if match this case, the access of hdev->ptp->flags will cause a kernel crash: [ 5888.946472] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000018 [ 5888.946475] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000018 ... [ 5889.266118] pc : hclge_ptp_get_rx_hwts+0x40/0x170 [hclge] [ 5889.272612] lr : hclge_ptp_get_rx_hwts+0x34/0x170 [hclge] [ 5889.279101] sp : ffff800012c3bc50 [ 5889.283516] x29: ffff800012c3bc50 x28: ffff2040002be040 [ 5889.289927] x27: ffff800009116484 x26: 0000000080007500 [ 5889.296333] x25: 0000000000000000 x24: ffff204001c6f000 [ 5889.302738] x23: ffff204144f53c00 x22: 0000000000000000 [ 5889.309134] x21: 0000000000000000 x20: ffff204004220080 [ 5889.315520] x19: ffff204144f53c00 x18: 0000000000000000 [ 5889.321897] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 [ 5889.328263] x15: 0000004000140ec8 x14: 0000000000000000 [ 5889.334617] x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 00000000010011df [ 5889.340965] x11: bbfeff4d22000000 x10: 0000000000000000 [ 5889.347303] x9 : ffff800009402124 x8 : 0200f78811dfbb4d [ 5889.353637] x7 : 2200000000191b01 x6 : ffff208002a7d480 [ 5889.359959] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 [ 5889.366271] x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000000 [ 5889.372567] x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff20400095c080 [ 5889.378857] Call trace: [ 5889.382285] hclge_ptp_get_rx_hwts+0x40/0x170 [hclge] [ 5889.388304] hns3_handle_bdinfo+0x324/0x410 [hns3] [ 5889.394055] hns3_handle_rx_bd+0x60/0x150 [hns3] [ 5889.399624] hns3_clean_rx_ring+0x84/0x170 [hns3] [ 5889.405270] hns3_nic_common_poll+0xa8/0x220 [hns3] [ 5889.411084] napi_poll+0xcc/0x264 [ 5889.415329] net_rx_action+0xd4/0x21c [ 5889.419911] __do_softirq+0x130/0x358 [ 5889.424484] irq_exit+0x134/0x154 [ 5889.428700] __handle_domain_irq+0x88/0xf0 [ 5889.433684] gic_handle_irq+0x78/0x2c0 [ 5889.438319] el1_irq+0xb8/0x140 [ 5889.442354] arch_cpu_idle+0x18/0x40 [ 5889.446816] default_idle_call+0x5c/0x1c0 [ 5889.451714] cpuidle_idle_call+0x174/0x1b0 [ 5889.456692] do_idle+0xc8/0x160 [ 5889.460717] cpu_startup_entry+0x30/0xfc [ 5889.465523] secondary_start_kernel+0x158/0x1ec [ 5889.470936] Code: 97ffab78 f9411c14 91408294 f9457284 (f9400c80) [ 5889.477950] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 5890.514626] SMP: failed to stop secondary CPUs 0-69,71-95 [ 5890.522951] Starting crashdump kernel...

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.

CVEs Like This One

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CVE-2026-22985Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-50000Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-57927Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-53129Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
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
5.14 — 5.15.153 · 5.16 — 6.1.83 · 6.2 — 6.6.23

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