Kernel panic via premature Coresight counter increments
Published Aug 15, 2026 · Updated Aug 15, 2026
A NULL-pointer dereference in Linux kernel Coresight 6.5 through 7.1.4 allows local users to panic the kernel during failed probing. The coresight_add_out_conn() and coresight_add_in_conn() paths increment connection counts before allocation succeeds, so coresight_release_platform_data() later dereferences a NULL or uninitialized entry while unwinding an allocation failure. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access, memory pressure timed with Coresight device probing on an affected ARM or ARM64 system, and results in a kernel panic.
Summary
What happened
A NULL-pointer dereference in Linux kernel Coresight 6.5 through 7.1.4 allows local users to panic the kernel during failed probing. The coresight_add_out_conn() and coresight_add_in_conn() paths increment connection counts before allocation succeeds, so coresight_release_platform_data() later dereferences a NULL or uninitialized entry while unwinding an allocation failure. Exploitation requires local low-privileged access, memory pressure timed with Coresight device probing on an affected ARM or ARM64 system, and results in a kernel panic.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-72485
- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 15, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 15, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 15, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=3d4ff657e454f8dba3e5e268e731e6e28c6031c1 <1563ae33dc4f5ebac96b93af2ef72e72aaaa31ae
- Affected versionversion=3d4ff657e454f8dba3e5e268e731e6e28c6031c1 <8ca9adc805884d3bb5038082462577f86c2c4a10
- Affected versionversion=6.5
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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Your stack
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