Local system crash via gmac0 NULL dereference
Published May 1, 2026 · Updated May 1, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in the MediaTek PPE Ethernet driver in affected Linux Kernel releases allows local users to crash the system. The ingress-device precheck dereferences eth->netdev[0]->netdev_ops without verifying that eth->netdev[0] is non-NULL when gmac0 is disabled. Low-privilege local access and a MediaTek PPE configuration with gmac0 disabled are required; the documented consequence is system-wide availability loss.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in the MediaTek PPE Ethernet driver in affected Linux Kernel releases allows local users to crash the system. The ingress-device precheck dereferences eth->netdev[0]->netdev_ops without verifying that eth->netdev[0] is non-NULL when gmac0 is disabled. Low-privilege local access and a MediaTek PPE configuration with gmac0 disabled are required; the documented consequence is system-wide availability loss.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-31736
- Published
- May 1, 2026
- Updated
- May 1, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 1, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 1, 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=6.11
- Affected versionversion=73cfd947dbdb25ef9863ac49c4596a7d53ad4025 <0b832aad33e6f160fda310f0306a6483d85e9d6e
- Affected versionversion=73cfd947dbdb25ef9863ac49c4596a7d53ad4025 <5dff799c677152dde963c3917bacd9127b03e145
- Affected versionversion=73cfd947dbdb25ef9863ac49c4596a7d53ad4025 <7b2380f0a0e374010c1a4a13203511b9dee5b166
- Affected versionversion=73cfd947dbdb25ef9863ac49c4596a7d53ad4025 <976ff48c2ac6e6b25b01428c9d7997bcd0fb2949
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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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