CVE-2026-53042: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fwctl: Fix class init ordering to avoid NULL pointer dereference on device removal CXL is linked before fwctl in drivers/Makefile. Both use `module_init, so `cxl_pci_driver_init()` runs first. When `cxl_pci_probe()` calls `fwctl_register()` and then `device_add()`, fwctl_class is not yet registered because fwctl_init() hasn't run, causing `class_to_subsys()` to return NULL and skip knode_class initialization. On device removal, `class_to_subsys()` returns non-NULL, and `device_del()` calls `klist_del()` on the uninitialized knode, triggering a NULL pointer dereference.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: from 6.15, before 6.18.33 (fixed in 6.18.33); from 6.19, before 7.0.10 (fixed in 7.0.10)

Published 2026-06-24. Last modified 2026-07-14.