System crash via NULL alignment-handler call
Published Apr 16, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
A NULL pointer dereference in the ARM64 Linux kernel allows local users to crash a system by triggering a 32-bit alignment fault. do_compat_alignment_fixup() calls the NULL result returned by do_alignment_t32_to_handler() for unsupported instructions instead of continuing to normal SIGBUS handling. Reachability requires a 32-bit compatibility process on ARM64 to fault on an unsupported instruction such as LDREX; the documented consequence is a kernel panic.
Summary
What happened
A NULL pointer dereference in the ARM64 Linux kernel allows local users to crash a system by triggering a 32-bit alignment fault. do_compat_alignment_fixup() calls the NULL result returned by do_alignment_t32_to_handler() for unsupported instructions instead of continuing to normal SIGBUS handling. Reachability requires a 32-bit compatibility process on ARM64 to fault on an unsupported instruction such as LDREX; the documented consequence is a kernel panic.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-22033
- Published
- Apr 16, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 16, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=3fc24ef32d3b9368f4c103dcd21d6a3f959b4870 <2df8ee605eb6806cd41c2095306db05206633a08
- Affected versionversion=3fc24ef32d3b9368f4c103dcd21d6a3f959b4870 <617a4b0084a547917669fef2b54253cc9c064990
- Affected versionversion=3fc24ef32d3b9368f4c103dcd21d6a3f959b4870 <c28f31deeacda307acfee2f18c0ad904e5123aac
- Affected versionversion=3fc24ef32d3b9368f4c103dcd21d6a3f959b4870 <cf187601053ecaf671ae645edb898901f81d03e9
- Affected versionversion=3fc24ef32d3b9368f4c103dcd21d6a3f959b4870 <ecf798573bbe0805803f7764e12a34b4bcc65074
- Affected versionversion=3fc24ef32d3b9368f4c103dcd21d6a3f959b4870 <fa2a9f625f185c6acb4ee5be8d71359a567afac9
- Affected versionversion=6.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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