Linux Kernel up to 6.18.9 dmem null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.9 and classified as critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component dmem. Executing a manipulation can lead to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-23183. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.9. This vulnerability affects an unknown code of the component dmem. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup/dmem: fix NULL pointer dereference when setting max An issue was triggered: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 15 UID: 0 PID: 658 Comm: bash Tainted: 6.19.0-rc6-next-2026012 Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), RIP: 0010:strcmp+0x10/0x30 RSP: 0018:ffffc900017f7dc0 EFLAGS: 00000246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffff888107cd4358 RDX: 0000000019f73907 RSI: ffffffff82cc381a RDI: 0000000000000000 RBP: ffff8881016bef0d R08: 000000006c0e7145 R09: 0000000056c0e714 R10: 0000000000000001 R11: ffff888107cd4358 R12: 0007ffffffffffff R13: ffff888101399200 R14: ffff888100fcb360 R15: 0007ffffffffffff CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000000105c79000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 Call Trace: <TASK> dmemcg_limit_write.constprop.0+0x16d/0x390 ? __pfx_set_resource_max+0x10/0x10 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x14e/0x200 vfs_write+0x367/0x510 ksys_write+0x66/0xe0 do_syscall_64+0x6b/0x390 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f42697e1887 It was trriggered setting max without limitation, the command is like: "echo test/region0 > dmem.max". To fix this issue, add check whether options is valid after parsing the region_name.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-23183 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 299113 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-23183), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.18.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c13816e8fa23deec6a8d7465d9e637fd02683b5c/43151f812886be1855d2cba059f9c93e4729460b is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (299113) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0421). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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