Linux Kernel up to 6.18.18/6.19.8 null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.18/6.19.8. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-43356. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.18/6.19.8. It has been classified as critical. Affected is an unknown code block. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iio: imu: adis: Fix NULL pointer dereference in adis_init The adis_init() function dereferences adis->ops to check if the individual function pointers (write, read, reset) are NULL, but does not first check if adis->ops itself is NULL. Drivers like adis16480, adis16490, adis16545 and others do not set custom ops and rely on adis_init() assigning the defaults. Since struct adis is zero-initialized by devm_iio_device_alloc(), adis->ops is NULL when adis_init() is called, causing a NULL pointer dereference: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 pc : adis_init+0xc0/0x118 Call trace: adis_init+0xc0/0x118 adis16480_probe+0xe0/0x670 Fix this by checking if adis->ops is NULL before dereferencing it, falling through to assign the default ops in that case.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-43356 since 05/01/2026. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 315709 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-43356), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.18.19 or 6.19.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ba19dd366528b961430f5195c2e382420703074f/1a48f94c63a078e7b6a2e59a637fc0858dc6510c/9990cd4f8827bd1ae3fb6eb7407630d8d463c430 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 (315709) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1454). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Red Hat OpenShift
• Microsoft Azure Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Proxmox Virtual Environment

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
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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