CVE-2026-74426 afs: fix NULL pointer dereference in afs_get_tree()
A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash via a null pointer dereference in the AFS filesystem mount path, causing 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-2026-74426?
CVE-2026-74426 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:
afs: fix NULL pointer dereference in afs_get_tree()
afs_alloc_sbi() uses kzalloc for memory allocation. And, if ctx->dyn_root is not null, as->cell and as->volume are null. In trace_afs_get_tree() they are dereferenced.
KASAN error message:
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 2 PID: 18478 Comm: syz-executor.7 Not tainted 5.10.246-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:perf_trace_afs_get_tree+0x1d9/0x550 include/trace/events/afs.h:1365
Call Trace: trace_afs_get_tree include/trace/events/afs.h:1365 [inline] afs_get_tree+0x922/0x1350 fs/afs/super.c:599 vfs_get_tree+0x8e/0x300 fs/super.c:1572 do_new_mount fs/namespace.c:3011 [inline] path_mount+0x14a5/0x2220 fs/namespace.c:3341 do_mount fs/namespace.c:3354 [inline] __do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:3562 [inline] __se_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:3539 [inline] __x64_sys_mount+0x283/0x300 fs/namespace.c:3539 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x50 arch/x86/entry/common.c:46 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0xd1
Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74426?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74426?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-74426 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74426 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-74426, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74426, GHSA-8xv3-wjfw-qm6v, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74426.