NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting perf6.18-debuginfo package, versions <1:6.18.35-68.127.amzn2023


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Amazon Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.17% (7th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-AMZN2023-PERF618DEBUGINFO-18525158
  • published5 Aug 2026
  • disclosed19 Jul 2026

Introduced: 19 Jul 2026

NewCVE-2026-64120  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Amazon-Linux:2023 perf6.18-debuginfo to version 1:6.18.35-68.127.amzn2023 or higher.
This issue was patched in ALAS2023-2026-1881.

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:

net: ethtool: fix NULL pointer dereference in phy_reply_size

In phy_prepare_data(), several strings such as 'name', 'drvname', 'upstream_sfp_name', and 'downstream_sfp_name' are allocated using kstrdup(). However, these allocations were not checked for failure.

If kstrdup() fails for 'name', it returns NULL while the function continues. This leads to a kernel NULL pointer dereference and panic later in phy_reply_size() when it unconditionally calls strlen() on the NULL pointer.

While other strings like 'upstream_sfp_name' might be checked before access in certain code paths, failing to handle these allocations consistently can lead to incomplete data reporting or hidden bugs.

Fix this by adding proper NULL checks for all kstrdup() calls in phy_prepare_data() and implement a centralized error handling path using goto labels to ensure all previously allocated resources are freed on failure.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1