CVE-2026-72485 coresight: platform: defer connection counter increment until alloc succeeds
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel Coresight driver causes a system panic during probe failure, leading to denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2026-72485?
CVE-2026-72485 is a high-severity 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:
coresight: platform: defer connection counter increment until alloc succeeds
coresight_add_out_conn() increments nr_outconns before calling devm_krealloc_array() and again before devm_kmalloc(). If either allocation fails, the counter is already bumped while the corresponding array entry is NULL or uninitialized garbage.
coresight_add_in_conn() has the same problem with nr_inconns and devm_krealloc_array().
In both cases the probe returns -ENOMEM, which causes coresight_get_platform_data() to call coresight_release_platform_data() for cleanup. That function iterates up to nr_outconns (or nr_inconns) entries and dereferences each pointer unconditionally, hitting the NULL or garbage entry and panicking instead of failing gracefully.
Fix by moving the counter increments to after all allocations succeed, so the struct is always consistent on any error path.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72485?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72485?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-72485 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72485 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72485, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72485, GHSA-cfj8-7wqc-c295, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72485.