CVE-2026-45968: linux NULL Pointer Dereference
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2026-45968 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2.4% of scored vulnerabilities.
Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 41 · Related 41Timeline
- 27-05-2026PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cpuidle: Skip governor when only one idle state is available On certain platforms (PowerNV systems without a power-mgt DT node), cpuidle may register only a single idle state. In cases where that single state is a polling state (state 0), the ladder governor may incorrectly treat state 1 as the first usable state and pass an out-of-bounds index. This can lead to a NULL enter callback being invoked, ultimately resulting in a system crash. [ 13.342636] cpuidle-powernv : Only Snooze is available [ 13.351854] Faulting instruction address: 0x00000000 [ 13.376489] NIP [0000000000000000] 0x0 [ 13.378351] LR [c000000001e01974] cpuidle_enter_state+0x2c4/0x668 Fix this by adding a bail-out in cpuidle_select() that returns state 0 directly when state_count <= 1, bypassing the governor and keeping the tick running.
CVSS metrics
3 scores · 3 sources · 1 version- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.13%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
2%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
0.00 pp
From 0.13% on 21-09-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogsNot in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Ubuntu156 products
- linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-186.196 | < 6.8.0-134.134
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-1112.119 | < 6.8.0-1060.63
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < a0f7e804edc82e513d1ccb7c95ed8b351522ec81 | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < 5d103a38e2ae96eca57fd17161bcd29bd4622d1c | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < 4da2b897283c39980d6ae09dc1560fcd937879e5 | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < 5c577ac939bca486cb02069505cfe47a5312ce02 | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < 8f6833d919bae915ead6c599a53e81e19b32da52 | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < 63ae78336f40bcd9a44952a7c6bafb9c88a8effd | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < a0724e40a58a0e323c59707edeae5b71d15800dc | ≥ dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4, < e5c9ffc6ae1bcdb1062527d611043681ac301aca | 4.14
- linux_kernel≥ 4.14, < 5.10.252 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.202 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.165 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.6.128 | ≥ 6.7, < 6.12.75 | ≥ 6.13, < 6.18.14 | ≥ 6.19, < 6.19.4
Debian1 product
- linux< 6.1.170-1 | < 6.12.85-1 | < 6.18.14-1
3 vendors · 159 products
