NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting perf6.18-debuginfo package, versions <1:6.18.15-14.217.amzn2023


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Amazon Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.12% (3rd percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-AMZN2023-PERF618DEBUGINFO-16732808
  • published18 May 2026
  • disclosed8 May 2026

Introduced: 8 May 2026

CVE-2026-43401  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Amazon-Linux:2023 perf6.18-debuginfo to version 1:6.18.15-14.217.amzn2023 or higher.
This issue was patched in ALAS2023-2026-1514.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream perf6.18-debuginfo package and not the perf6.18-debuginfo package as distributed by Amazon-Linux. See How to fix? for Amazon-Linux:2023 relevant fixed versions and status.

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 ]

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1