Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-23366

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 6.16.1 – 6.18.17

Published
25 March 2026
Modified
24 April 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 0.0012 2th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-23366 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 Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 2th 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-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — 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: drm/client: Do not destroy NULL modes 'modes' in drm_client_modeset_probe may fail to kcalloc. If this occurs, we jump to 'out', calling modes_destroy on it, which dereferences it. This may result…

more

in a NULL pointer dereference in the error case. Prevent that.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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.
Why these techniques?

NULL pointer dereference in kernel DRM error path directly enables local system crash via exploitation (Endpoint DoS).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-23353Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
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CVE-2026-31727Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-45842Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-22998Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-43086Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-31600Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-31457Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.16, 7.0 · 6.16.1 — 6.18.17 · 6.19 — 6.19.7

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation
  • SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Developer testing and evaluation directly exercises allocation-failure paths that would have revealed the missing NULL check before modes_destroy.

prevent

Security engineering principles require robust error handling and defensive checks after every dynamic allocation, exactly the omission that produced this NULL dereference.

respond

Flaw remediation supplies the kernel patch that adds the missing NULL guard in drm_client_modeset_probe.

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.

detects

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