From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: AL-KERNEL To: kernel-cve@kernelcve.org Subject: [CVE-2026-53289][LOW] ice: fix NULL pointer dereference in ice_reset_all_vfs() [ Upstream Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:30:18 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-AL-KERNEL-CVE: CVE-2026-53289 X-AL-KERNEL-Priority: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-Severity: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-Base-Severity: LOW X-AL-KERNEL-KPANIC: NO X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore: 2 X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore-Lower: 1 X-AL-KERNEL-Commit: acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 List-Id: CVE: CVE-2026-53289 Priority: LOW AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW KPANIC flag: NO Patch: ice: fix NULL pointer dereference in ice_reset_all_vfs() [ Upstream Commit: acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-53289 Analysis date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:30:18 -0400 ActionableScore: 2 ActionableScore lower bound: 1 Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate / Low-like, not an Important candidate Manual review required: NO Summary: A failed VSI rebuild in the Intel ice driver can leave VF queue mapping pointers NULL, and `ice_reset_all_vfs()` may continue post-rebuild handling and trigger a kernel NULL pointer dereference during local device maintenance or firmware update operations. ====================================================================== ABOUT THIS REPORT ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-53289 is available here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-53289 The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue. This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a separate ActionableScore mechanism. The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful security impact. Published priority for this report: LOW Manual review required: NO A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included at the end of this message. ====================================================================== AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT ====================================================================== CVE-2026-53289 LOW CHECK Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';CWE-252;**CWE-476;CWE-754;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';BEST CVSS score: '4.7';DESCR 'A NULL pointer dereference in the Intel ice driver can occur when ice_reset_all_vfs() continues VF post rebuild handling after ice_vf_rebuild_vsi() has failed. During NVM firmware update or a related PF reset condition, a failed VSI rebuild can leave txq_map and rxq_map as NULL while the VSI object still exists, and later ice_vf_post_vsi_rebuild() can reach ice_ena_vf_q_mappings() and dereference vsi txq_map. For the CVSS the PR:L is used for the paranoid score because a reduced capability root, service account, or delegated maintenance process may be able to trigger device reset or firmware update paths in some deployments. The issue is not network reachable through packet traffic and normally requires local administrative or maintenance access to the affected host. Impact is denial of service via kernel crash, with no supported evidence of information disclosure, data corruption, UAF, or privilege escalation.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate / Low-like, not an Important candidate (with actual score 2) YES REMOTE LOCK DANGER NULLPTR ERRORPATH NETWORK KERNEL_PANIC_PLUS_UAF HARDWARE DECREASED_TO_MODERATE_REGULAR_FROM_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS_AND_CIANNH DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3 NO NO checked ====================================================================== ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS ====================================================================== ActionableScore=2 ActionableScoreLower=1 ## 1. ActionableScore * Conservative score: 1 * Paranoid score: 2 * Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate / Low-like, not an Important candidate** ## 2. Signal breakdown Conservative signals: * Reliable kernel crash / strong DoS: +1 The patch and crash trace show a concrete NULL pointer dereference in `ice_ena_vf_q_mappings()` after `ice_vf_rebuild_vsi()` fails. * Requires admin/root/device maintenance privileges: -2 The demonstrated trigger is NVM firmware update or PF/VF reset handling, which normally requires administrative access. * Rare and difficult-to-reach runtime condition: -1 The crash requires SR-IOV/VF reset handling plus failed VSI rebuild during a firmware transitional state. * Availability impact realistic: +1 The failure is a host kernel panic, not just a harmless warning. Paranoid additions / adjustments: * Firmware-mediated external influence: +1 The failure depends on firmware/Admin Queue behavior during NVM update, so a firmware-mediated condition contributes to reachability. * Reduced privilege maintenance model considered: +1 effective adjustment In some deployments, firmware update or device reset may be delegated to a service account or reduced-capability operator rather than full host root. No memory-corruption or LPE signals are awarded: * This is a NULL pointer dereference on an allocated but partially initialized `ice_vsi`. * The patch does not show UAF, double free, OOB write, stale callback, attacker-controlled reclaim, type confusion, refcount takeover, or arbitrary write. * No confidentiality or integrity primitive is supported. ## 3. Reachability analysis The realistic trigger is local administrative or maintenance access to the affected Intel `ice` PF device, especially during NVM firmware update or a related reset path where VSI rebuild can fail. A normal remote network peer sending packets is not a credible trigger from this patch. Namespace or container delegation could lower the practical privilege requirement only if the environment exposes device reset, devlink, firmware update, or PF maintenance operations to a reduced-privilege service account. The affected driver is relevant in server and data-center NIC deployments, but the failing path is not default packet processing and requires specific SR-IOV plus firmware/update/reset conditions. ## 4. Severity interpretation This behaves like an ordinary Moderate or Low-like kernel DoS, not an Important-class vulnerability. The theoretical impact is a host crash, but the demonstrated primitive is only NULL dereference after unchecked error handling. There is no realistic evidence of privilege escalation, memory corruption beyond invalid NULL access, or sensitive data exposure. The paranoid score remains low because the highest defensible interpretation is still a constrained local maintenance-triggered DoS. ## 5. One-sentence report phrase A failed VSI rebuild in the Intel ice driver can leave VF queue mapping pointers NULL, and `ice_reset_all_vfs()` may continue post-rebuild handling and trigger a kernel NULL pointer dereference during local device maintenance or firmware update operations. ## 6. Manual review recommendation NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED This can be auto-closed for urgent security triage unless the local environment delegates firmware update or PF reset control to untrusted users. The patch supports a local privileged DoS only, with no credible LPE or memory corruption primitive. ====================================================================== UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY ====================================================================== Patch: ice: fix NULL pointer dereference in ice_reset_all_vfs() [ Upstream Commit: acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 Changed files: drivers/net/ethernet/intel/ice/ice_vf_lib.c Diff excerpt: Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch. Full patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=acc76b97902757b63ba5136f787d107647236a19 ====================================================================== DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-53289 can be found here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-53289 The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information. The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure. This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore. Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability information often permits more than one defensible interpretation: Conservative CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.7 The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation. The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated real-world impact. CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment, because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration, hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental conditions can differ significantly between systems. A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites, subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or privilege-escalation impact. Conservative ActionableScore: 1 Paranoid ActionableScore: 2 The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7. For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following additional presentation split: ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0 The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases, MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update. There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0 even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage). KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification workflow. AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: LOW KPANIC detected for this report: NO Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): LOW These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition. For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/ (and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report for non-existant CVE-id yet). Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases, please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses info to this particular CVE. And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar). My contact email for such notifications is alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).