CVE-2026-72013 riscv: Prevent NULL pointer dereference in machine_kexec_prepare()
A local attacker with high privileges can cause a denial of service via a NULL pointer dereference in the RISC-V kexec preparation code.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72013?
CVE-2026-72013 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:
riscv: Prevent NULL pointer dereference in machine_kexec_prepare()
A NULL pointer dereference issue is noticed in riscv's machine_kexec_prepare(), where image->segment[i].buf might be NULL and copied unchecked.
The NULL buf comes from ima_add_kexec_buffer(), where kbuf is added by kexec_add_buffer(), but kbuf.buffer is NULL, then it is copied without a check in machine_kexec_prepare():
kexec_file_load -> kimage_file_alloc_init() -> kimage_file_prepare_segments() -> ima_add_kexec_buffer() -> kexec_add_buffer() -> machine_kexec_prepare() -> memcpy()
Address this by adding a check before the data copy attempt.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72013?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72013?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-72013 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72013 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72013, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72013, GHSA-55xj-694j-8fjq, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72013.