---
id: CVE-2026-46118
title: >-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:


  pseries/papr-hvpipe: Fix null ptr deref in papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle()


  commit 6d3789d347a7 ("papr-hvpipe: convert papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle() to
  FD_PREPARE()")…
summary: >-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:


  pseries/papr-hvpipe: Fix null ptr deref in papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle()


  commit 6d3789d347a7 ("papr-hvpipe: convert papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle() to
  FD_PREPARE()")…
severity: medium
cvss: 5.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-476
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.7'
  - linux_kernel = 6.18.32
  - linux_kernel = 7.1
patched:
  - linux_kernel 7.0.7
published: '2026-05-28'
updated: '2026-10-15'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T11:17:31.930'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-46118'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b9f7aafa44f5ce852c00509104d10fd9eb0f402'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/735439394dde8462f9b50566727fbe333beaadaf'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf51bec1560f8bf115d1476f60335f9d90e110b0'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
epss: 0.0016
epssPercentile: 0.04696
ingestedAt: '2026-10-15T11:00:41.704Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

pseries/papr-hvpipe: Fix null ptr deref in papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle()

commit 6d3789d347a7 ("papr-hvpipe: convert papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle() to FD_PREPARE()"),
changed the create handle to FD_PREPARE(), but it caused kernel
null-ptr-deref because after call to retain_and_null_ptr(src_info),
src_info is re-used for adding it to the global list.

Getting the following kernel panic in papr_hvpipe_dev_create_handle()
when trying to add src_info to the list.
 Kernel attempted to write user page (0) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0)
 BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on write at 0x00000000
 Faulting instruction address: 0xc0000000001b44a0
 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1]
 ...
 Call Trace:
 papr_hvpipe_dev_ioctl+0x1f4/0x48c (unreliable)
 sys_ioctl+0x528/0x1064
 system_call_exception+0x128/0x360
 system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec

Now, the error handling with FD_PREPARE's file cleanup and __free(kfree) auto
cleanup is getting too convoluted. This is mainly because we need to
ensure only 1 user get the srcID handle. To simplify this, we allocate
prepare the src_info in the beginning and add it to the global list
under a spinlock after checking that no duplicates exist.

This simplify the error handling where if the FD_ADD fails, we can
simply remove the src_info from the list and consume any pending msg in
hvpipe to be cleared, after src_info became visible in the global list.

## Affected

- `linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.7`
- `linux_kernel = 6.18.32`
- `linux_kernel = 7.1`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `linux_kernel 7.0.7`