CVE-2026-74426

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's AFS (Andrew File System) component. A local user can exploit this by triggering a specific memory allocation condition during a mount operation, leading to a null pointer dereference. This can cause the system to crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

A low impact NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the Linux kernel's AFS (Andrew File System) filesystem implementation. When an AFS filesystem is mounted with a dynamic root, afs_alloc_sbi() allocates the superblock information with kzalloc and leaves the cell and volume pointers NULL when ctx->dyn_root is set; trace_afs_get_tree() then dereferences those NULL pointers during the mount operation. A local user able to trigger an AFS mount operation can use this flaw to crash the kernel, resulting in a denial of service. This flaw affects the kernel and kernel-rt components in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and 10 as well as the kernel components in Red Hat In-Vehicle OS 2, where the fix has been deferred to a future update because the issue is a low severity local denial of service with low actionability; the residual risk is limited to a local user causing a system crash. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, and 8 are not affected because the vulnerable code is not present in those kernels. Red Hat rates the impact of this flaw as Low even though the CVSS:3.1 base score is 5.5 (Moderate), because exploitation requires local access, the flaw can only be used to cause a denial of service, and it has been assessed as having low actionability.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.