CVE-2026-53334
Received Received - Intake

NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel DAMON reclaim

Publication date: 2026-07-01

Last updated on: 2026-07-01

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/reclaim: handle ctx allocation failure Patch series "mm/damon/{reclaim,lru_sort}: handle ctx allocation failures". DAMON_RECLAIM and DAMON_LRU_SORT could dereference NULL pointers if their damon_ctx object allocations fail. The bugs are expected to happen infrequently because the allocations are arguably too small to fail on common setups. But theoretically they are possible and the consequences are bad. Fix those. The issues were discovered [1] by Sashiko. This patch (of 2): DAMON_RECLAIM allocates the damon_ctx object for its kdamond in its init function. damon_reclaim_enabled_store() wrongly assumes the allocation will always succeed once tried. If the damon_ctx allocation was failed, therefore, code execution reaches to damon_commit_ctx() while 'ctx' is NULL. As a result, it dereferences the NULL 'ctx' pointer. Avoid the NULL dereference by returning -ENOMEM if 'ctx' is NULL.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-07-01
Last Modified
2026-07-01
Generated
2026-07-01
AI Q&A
2026-07-01
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-53334
EUVD
EUVD-2026-40968

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel *

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Exploitability

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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's memory management subsystem, specifically in the DAMON_RECLAIM and DAMON_LRU_SORT components. These components allocate a damon_ctx object, which is essential for their operation. If the allocation of this damon_ctx object fails, the code does not properly handle this failure and may attempt to dereference a NULL pointer. This can lead to a NULL pointer dereference, which is a type of bug that can cause the kernel to crash or behave unpredictably.

The issue arises because the code assumes that the allocation will always succeed, but in rare cases where it fails, the code still proceeds and tries to use the NULL pointer. The patch fixes this by checking if the allocation failed and returning an error instead of dereferencing the NULL pointer.

Impact Analysis

If this vulnerability is triggered, it can cause the Linux kernel to dereference a NULL pointer, which typically results in a kernel crash or system instability. This can lead to denial of service (DoS) conditions where the affected system becomes unresponsive or requires a reboot.

Although the allocation failures are expected to be rare due to the small size of the allocations, the potential impact is significant because kernel crashes can disrupt services, cause data loss, or affect system availability.

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, ensure that your Linux kernel is updated with the patch that handles the damon_ctx allocation failures in the mm/damon/reclaim and mm/damon/lru_sort components.

This patch prevents NULL pointer dereferences by properly checking if the damon_ctx allocation failed and returning an error instead of proceeding with a NULL pointer.

Since the vulnerability arises from a kernel-level issue, applying the official kernel update or patch that includes this fix is the immediate and recommended mitigation step.

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