CVE-2026-53281
HIGH 8.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/vt-d: Avoid NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption Commit 60f030f7418d ("iommu/vt-d: Avoid use of NULL after WARN_ON_ONCE") fixed a NULL pointer dereference in an unlikely situation partly. If dev_pasid is not found in the dev_pasids list, it remains NULL. However, the teardown operations are executed unconditionally, this lead to a NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption. If the domain was never attached to this IOMMU, info will be NULL, which would cause an immediate dereference when checking --info->refcnt. Even if info is not NULL, decrementing the refcount without having removed a valid PASID might unbalance the count. This could lead to premature dropping of the refcount to 0, potentially causing a use-after-free for the remaining active devices sharing the domain. Fix it by returning early if dev_pasid is NULL, before executing the teardown operations. Issue found by AI review and suggested by Kevin Tian. https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260421031347.1408890-1-zhenzhong.duan%40intel.com
Severe if exploited (CVSS 8.8), but no known exploitation and low modeled probability. Patch on a normal cadence.
Exploitation likelihood
0.1%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 3rd percentile
Impact if exploited
8.8CVSS 3.1 · HIGH
- ConfidentialityHigh
- IntegrityHigh
- AvailabilityHigh
What an attacker needs
- ⚠Access: Requires local access to the host
- ⚠Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Proof of concept & exploit code
- github-search Search GitHub for public PoC repos
Test against your own equipment
curl -s https://vulnpedia.com/cve/CVE-2026-53281/poc.jsonMachine-readable PoC index for this CVE (for automation).Listed for defensive triage, patch verification, and authorized testing on systems you own. Machine-readable: /cve/CVE-2026-53281/poc.json
Affected
Products Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Linux Kernel
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Known Affected Software Configurations
| Vendor | Product | Version range |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux Kernel | ≥ 6.12.57 and < 6.13 |
| Linux | Linux Kernel | ≥ 6.13.3 and < 6.18.33 |
| Linux | Linux Kernel | ≥ 6.19 and < 7.0.10 |
| Linux | Linux Kernel | 7.1 |
| Linux | Linux Kernel | 7.1 |
| Linux | Linux Kernel | 7.1 |
All CVSS metrics
- HIGH 8.8 v3.1 · CNA Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - MEDIUM 5.5 v3.1 · ADP Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - HIGH 8.8 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - MEDIUM 5.5 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H