# CVE-2026-64416: mm: swap_cgroup: fix NULL deref in lookup_swap_cgroup_id on swapless host

> A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's swap cgroup code allows a local attacker to crash the system via a corrupted page table entry.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 25 Jul 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-64416, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64416, GHSA-fp4w-89fw-h8p4, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-64416, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64416

## What is CVE-2026-64416?

CVE-2026-64416 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jul 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm: swap_cgroup: fix NULL deref in lookup_swap_cgroup_id on swapless host

lookup_swap_cgroup_id() passes swap_cgroup_ctrl[type].map to
__swap_cgroup_id_lookup() without checking that the type was ever
registered via swap_cgroup_swapon().  On a swapless host every ctrl->map
is NULL, so __swap_cgroup_id_lookup() dereferences NULL + a scaled
swp_offset().

Since commit bea67dcc5eea ("mm: attempt to batch free swap entries for
zap_pte_range()"), zap_pte_range() -> swap_pte_batch() calls
lookup_swap_cgroup_id() on any non-present, non-none PTE that decodes as a
real swap entry, without first validating it against swap_info[].  A
single PTE corrupted into a type-0 swap entry takes the host down at
process exit.

We hit this in production on a swapless 6.12.58 host: ~1s of
"get_swap_device: Bad swap file entry 3f800204222bb" (do_swap_page() being
correctly defensive about the same entry) followed by

  BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 000003f800204220
  RIP: 0010:lookup_swap_cgroup_id+0x2b/0x60
  Call Trace:
   swap_pte_batch+0xbf/0x230
   zap_pte_range+0x4c8/0x780
   unmap_page_range+0x190/0x3e0
   exit_mmap+0xd9/0x3c0
   do_exit+0x20c/0x4b0

syzbot has reported the identical stack.

The source of the PTE corruption is a separate bug; this change makes the
teardown path as robust as the fault path already is.  Every other caller
of lookup_swap_cgroup_id() is downstream of a get_swap_device() that has
already validated the entry, so the new branch is cold.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-64416?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-64416?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-64416 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64416 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-64416 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-64416 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jul 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64416 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64416/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64416/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-64416
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-64416
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-64416

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64416/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.