CVE-2026-43401
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cpufreq: intel_pstate: Fix NULL pointer dereference in update_cpu_qos_request() The update_cpu_qos_request() function attempts to initialize the 'freq' variable by dereferencing 'cpudata' before verifying if the 'policy' is valid. This issue occurs on systems booted with the "nosmt" parameter, where all_cpu_data[cpu] is NULL for the SMT sibling threads. As a result, any call to update_qos_requests() will result in a NULL pointer dereference as the code will attempt to access pstate.turbo_freq using the NULL cpudata pointer. Also, pstate.turbo_freq may be updated by intel_pstate_get_hwp_cap() after initializing the 'freq' variable, so it is better to defer the 'freq' until intel_pstate_get_hwp_cap() has been called. Fix this by deferring the 'freq' assignment until after the policy and driver_data have been validated. [ rjw: Added one paragraph to the changelog ]
Predictions
Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.
Mitigations
No mitigations published for this CVE yet.
The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.
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OS impact
| OS | Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| sles | affected | | |
| debian | bookworm | fixed | 0 |
| debian | bullseye | fixed | 0 |
| debian | forky | fixed | 6.19.10-1 |
| debian | sid | fixed | 6.19.10-1 |
| debian | trixie | fixed | 0 |
| linux-kernel | affected | 6.18.19 | |
| linux-kernel | 7.0 | affected | |
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/42738dffb7b0766a45882dff7989401d78f66f92
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6bfda7ce56e7d14a677b7bcd6c7a5009cc29aa88
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab39cc4cb8ceecdc2b61747433e7237f1ac2b789
- https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-43401.html
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-43401
CWEs
CWE-476
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.