Linux Kernel up to 6.6.156/6.12.109/6.18.51/7.2.5 nvme-apple block/blk-mq.c blk_mq_timeout_work 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.
4.2	$0-$5k	0.77-

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.156/6.12.109/6.18.51/7.2.5. It has been declared as problematic. The affected element is the function blk_mq_timeout_work of the file block/blk-mq.c of the component nvme-apple. Executing a manipulation can lead to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-90229. The attack needs to be launched locally. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.156/6.12.109/6.18.51/7.2.5. This vulnerability affects the function blk_mq_timeout_work of the file block/blk-mq.c of the component nvme-apple. 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: nvme-apple: Destroy the admin queue on removal The admin queue is allocated with blk_mq_alloc_queue() but never destroyed. nvme_free_ctrl() only drops the last reference and blk_mq_exit_queue() and blk_sync_queue() never run: the hctx is never moved to q->unused_hctx_list and the timeout timer and work stay armed on a queue that is about to be freed which will eventually oops inside blk_mq_timeout_work(). This can only be triggered when the controller fails to come up and is then immediately torn down again which is why no one ever ran into this before. Let's just copy what the pcie driver does: unquiesce and destroy the admin queue before nvme_uninit_ctrl(). With this the following WARN followed by a panic no longer happens: WARNING: block/blk-mq.c:4390 at blk_mq_release+0x194/0x238, CPU#4: kworker/u34:4/119 CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 119 Comm: kworker/u34:4 Not tainted 7.2.0-rc1-dirty #248 PREEMPT Hardware name: Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020) (DT) Workqueue: nvme-wq apple_nvme_remove_dead_ctrl_work pstate: 61400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : blk_mq_release+0x194/0x238 lr : blk_mq_release+0x58/0x238 sp : ffffc000833a3b50 x29: ffffc000833a3b50 x28: ffff80001d0450f8 x27: ffff800020c95200 x26: 0000000000000088 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: ffff800020f36805 x23: 0000000000000000 x22: ffffc00081a86878 x21: ffff800020be9c60 x20: 0000000000000000 x19: ffff800022501698 x18: 000000000000000a x17: 7365757165722066 x16: 666f7265776f7020 x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000028 x13: 0000000000004def x12: 0000000000000003 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffc000805b4fc8 x8 : ffffc00081915820 x7 : ffffc00081c4f3c8 x6 : 0000000000000001 x5 : 0000000000000004 x4 : ffff800022498d80 x3 : ffffc000833a3b14 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff800022501698 Call trace: blk_mq_release+0x194/0x238 (P) blk_put_queue+0x8c/0xf0 nvme_free_ctrl+0x4c/0x260 device_release+0x44/0x128 kobject_put+0xa0/0x120 put_device+0x1c/0x40 nvme_uninit_ctrl+0x48/0x60 apple_nvme_remove+0x54/0xb0 platform_remove+0x28/0x40 device_remove+0x54/0x98 device_release_driver_internal+ device_release_driver+0x20/0x38 apple_nvme_remove_dead_ctrl_wor process_one_work+0x1f4/0x770 worker_thread+0x1b8/0x360 kthread+0x140/0x160 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 irq event stamp: 448 hardirqs last enabled at (447):in_unlock_irqrestore+0x74/0x80 hardirqs last disabled at (448): [<ffffc000811cf5c0>] el1_brk64+0x20/0x60 softirqs last enabled at (0): [ess+0xb28/0x2698 softirqs last disabled at (0): [<0000000000000000>] 0x0 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000096000005 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x05: level 1 translation fault Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000005, ISS2 = 0x00000000 CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagA GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [0000000000000000] user address Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000005 [#1] SMP CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 54 Comm: kwor 7.2.0-rc1-dirty #248PREEMPT Tainted: [W]=WARN Hardware name: Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020) (DT) Workqueue: kblockd blk_mq_timeou pstate: 01400005 (nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : percpu_ref_tryget_many.cons lr : percpu_ref_tryget_many.constprop.0+0xc0/0x168 sp : ffffc000829cbce0 x29: ffffc000829cbce0 x28: ffff800020be9f48 x27: ffff800013e503c0 x26: 0000000000000108 x25: 000009c05 x23: 0000000000000000 x22: ffffc000819f5000 x21: ffff800020be9f48 x20: ffff8001deda4808 x19: ffff8000a x17: 00000000580e1fac x16: ffffc00082bbbb7c x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000028 x13: 000000001 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffc000829cbc20 x8 : ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-90229 since 09/11/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.6.157, 6.12.110, 6.18.52, 7.2.6 or 7.3-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5f6f4777b7a8676251139dbfbcdec3cb578f0e40/bf51e306e3dcffd1a63ef09a7a39d28f3578dd2d/215d1682f0bae495f3f9cf692b358116b7a18602/c11685ee4eedc70f738b117a4a8c0fbe84cd79b3/87d5b9864c8118d26f54de4b66d2bddf2c659272 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.156
• 6.12.109
• 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
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5

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: 4.4
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 4.2

VulDB Base Score: 4.4
VulDB Temp Score: 4.2
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: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

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

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.6.157/6.12.110/6.18.52/7.2.6/7.3-rc1
Patch: 5f6f4777b7a8676251139dbfbcdec3cb578f0e40/bf51e306e3dcffd1a63ef09a7a39d28f3578dd2d/215d1682f0bae495f3f9cf692b358116b7a18602/c11685ee4eedc70f738b117a4a8c0fbe84cd79b3/87d5b9864c8118d26f54de4b66d2bddf2c659272

Timelineinfo

09/11/2026 CVE reserved
09/17/2026 +6 days Advisory disclosed
09/17/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
09/17/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-90229 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-90229
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-406720

Entryinfo

Created: 09/17/2026 20:41
Changes: 09/17/2026 20:41 (60)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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