Linux Kernel up to 7.0.9 KHO kho_fill_kimage null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.9. It has been rated as problematic. This impacts the function kho_fill_kimage of the component KHO. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-64167. The attack can only be performed from a local environment. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.9 and classified as problematic. This issue affects the function kho_fill_kimage of the component KHO. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kho: skip KHO for crash kernel kho_fill_kimage() unconditionally populates the kimage with KHO metadata for every kexec image type. When the image is a crash kernel, this can be problematic as the crash kernel can run in a small reserved region and the KHO scratch areas can sit outside it. The crash kernel then faults during kho_memory_init() when it tries phys_to_virt() on the KHO FDT address: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address xxxxxxxx ... fdt_offset_ptr+... fdt_check_node_offset_+... fdt_first_property_offset+... fdt_get_property_namelen_+... fdt_getprop+... kho_memory_init+... mm_core_init+... start_kernel+... kho_locate_mem_hole() already skips KHO logic for KEXEC_TYPE_CRASH images, but kho_fill_kimage() was missing the same guard. As kho_fill_kimage() is the single point that populates image->kho.fdt and image->kho.scratch, fixing it here is sufficient for both arm64 and x86 as the FDT and boot_params path are bailing out when these fields are unset.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-64167 since 07/19/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 7.0.11 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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