CVE-2026-43401

MEDIUM EPSS 2.2%
Published May 8, 20261mo ago · Modified Jun 17, 20261w ago
5.5 CVSS 3.1
Medium
Find Similar
Published May 8, 2026 1mo ago
Last Modified Jun 17, 2026 1w ago

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cpufreq: intel_pstate: Fix NULL pointer dereference in update_cpu_qos_request() The update_cpu_qos_request() function attempts to initialize the 'freq' variable by dereferencing 'cpudata' before verifying if the 'policy' is valid. This issue occurs on systems booted with the "nosmt" parameter, where all_cpu_data[cpu] is NULL for the SMT sibling threads. As a result, any call to update_qos_requests() will result in a NULL pointer dereference as the code will attempt to access pstate.turbo_freq using the NULL cpudata pointer. Also, pstate.turbo_freq may be updated by intel_pstate_get_hwp_cap() after initializing the 'freq' variable, so it is better to defer the 'freq' until intel_pstate_get_hwp_cap() has been called. Fix this by deferring the 'freq' assignment until after the policy and driver_data have been validated. [ rjw: Added one paragraph to the changelog ]

CVSS Details

Base Score
5.5
Exploitability
1.8
Impact
3.6
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector Local
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required Low
User Interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability High

Threat Intelligence

EPSS Exploit Probability
2.2% percentile
Exploit & Patch Status
No Known Exploit
Patch Available

Weaknesses 1

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference Memory Safety

Affected Products 3

VendorProductVersionRange
linuxlinux_kernel*≥6.18  –  <6.18.19
linuxlinux_kernel*≥6.19  –  <6.19.9
linuxlinux_kernel7.0any

References 3

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/42738dffb7b0766a45882dff7989401d78f66f92
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6bfda7ce56e7d14a677b7bcd6c7a5009cc29aa88
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab39cc4cb8ceecdc2b61747433e7237f1ac2b789
    Patch

Remediation

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/42738dffb7b0766a45882dff7989401d78f66f92
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6bfda7ce56e7d14a677b7bcd6c7a5009cc29aa88
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab39cc4cb8ceecdc2b61747433e7237f1ac2b789
    Patch