Linux Kernel up to 6.12.96/6.18.38/7.1.3 swap_cgroup lookup_swap_cgroup_id null pointer dereference

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
9.5	$0-$5k	1.55-

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as very critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.96/6.18.38/7.1.3. This issue affects the function lookup_swap_cgroup_id of the component swap_cgroup. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-64416. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.96/6.18.38/7.1.3 and classified as very critical. This issue affects the function lookup_swap_cgroup_id of the component swap_cgroup. 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 confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: swap_cgroup: fix NULL deref in lookup_swap_cgroup_id on swapless host lookup_swap_cgroup_id() passes swap_cgroup_ctrl[type].map to __swap_cgroup_id_lookup() without checking that the type was ever registered via swap_cgroup_swapon(). On a swapless host every ctrl->map is NULL, so __swap_cgroup_id_lookup() dereferences NULL + a scaled swp_offset(). Since commit bea67dcc5eea ("mm: attempt to batch free swap entries for zap_pte_range()"), zap_pte_range() -> swap_pte_batch() calls lookup_swap_cgroup_id() on any non-present, non-none PTE that decodes as a real swap entry, without first validating it against swap_info[]. A single PTE corrupted into a type-0 swap entry takes the host down at process exit. We hit this in production on a swapless 6.12.58 host: ~1s of "get_swap_device: Bad swap file entry 3f800204222bb" (do_swap_page() being correctly defensive about the same entry) followed by BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 000003f800204220 RIP: 0010:lookup_swap_cgroup_id+0x2b/0x60 Call Trace: swap_pte_batch+0xbf/0x230 zap_pte_range+0x4c8/0x780 unmap_page_range+0x190/0x3e0 exit_mmap+0xd9/0x3c0 do_exit+0x20c/0x4b0 syzbot has reported the identical stack. The source of the PTE corruption is a separate bug; this change makes the teardown path as robust as the fault path already is. Every other caller of lookup_swap_cgroup_id() is downstream of a get_swap_device() that has already validated the entry, so the new branch is cold.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-64416 since 07/19/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/26/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 329991 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-64416), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.97, 6.18.39, 7.1.4 or 7.2-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 818416fef38759f23210de449663cd9d7e293d39/b415c00bf23df577a4a95673d00ae76687bcc1d4/6a4196d19f477524d2f92adca90fc1fbe9a0420a/63b02a9409cb5180398491b093e48bcb5315f5fb is able to eliminate this problem.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (329991). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
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• 6.12.94
• 6.12.95
• 6.12.96
• 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
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• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 7.1.0
• 7.1.1
• 7.1.2
• 7.1.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
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CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 9.9
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 9.5

VulDB Base Score: 9.9
VulDB Temp Score: 9.5
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Null pointer dereference
CWE: CWE-476 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Nessus ID: 329991
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-64416

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.12.97/6.18.39/7.1.4/7.2-rc1
Patch: 818416fef38759f23210de449663cd9d7e293d39/b415c00bf23df577a4a95673d00ae76687bcc1d4/6a4196d19f477524d2f92adca90fc1fbe9a0420a/63b02a9409cb5180398491b093e48bcb5315f5fb

Timelineinfo

07/19/2026 CVE reserved
07/25/2026 +6 days Advisory disclosed
07/25/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
07/26/2026 +1 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-64416 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-64416
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-383189

Entryinfo

Created: 07/25/2026 18:20
Updated: 07/26/2026 07:14
Changes: 07/25/2026 18:20 (59), 07/26/2026 07:14 (2)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Discussion

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