In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
PCI/AER: Avoid NULL pointer dereference in aer_ratelimit()
When platform firmware supplies error information to the OS, e.g., via the ACPI APEI GHES mechanism, it may identify an error source device that doesn't advertise an AER Capability and therefore dev->aer_info, which contains AER stats and ratelimiting data, is NULL.
pci_dev_aer_stats_incr() already checks dev->aer_info for NULL, but aer_ratelimit() did not, leading to NULL pointer dereferences like this one from the URL below:
{1}[Hardware Error]: Hardware error from APEI Generic Hardware Error Source: 0 {1}[Hardware Error]: event severity: corrected {1}[Hardware Error]: device_id: 0000:00:00.0 {1}[Hardware Error]: vendor_id: 0x8086, device_id: 0x2020 {1}[Hardware Error]: aer_cor_status: 0x00001000, aer_cor_mask: 0x00002000 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000264 RIP: 0010:___ratelimit+0xc/0x1b0 pci_print_aer+0x141/0x360 aer_recover_work_func+0xb5/0x130
[8086:2020] is an Intel "Sky Lake-E DMI3 Registers" device that claims to be a Root Port but does not advertise an AER Capability.
Add a NULL check in aer_ratelimit() to avoid the NULL pointer dereference. Note that this also prevents ratelimiting these events from GHES.
[bhelgaas: add crash details to commit log]
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle_linux | — | Upgrade kernel-uek | Feb 24, 2026 | Oct 28, 2025 |
| Redhat_linux | — | Upgrade kernel-rtUpgrade kernel | May 20, 2026 | Oct 28, 2025 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade linux-image-genericUpgrade linux-image-virtualUpgrade linux-image-aws-64kUpgrade linux-image-raspi-6.17Upgrade linux-image-gcp-6.17Upgrade linux-image-oracleUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1011-oemUpgrade linux-image-gcpUpgrade linux-image-aws-6.17Upgrade linux-image-awsUpgrade linux-image-realtimeUpgrade linux-image-oracle-64kUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-14-generic-64kUpgrade linux-image-virtual-6.17Upgrade linux-image-oracle-64k-6.17Upgrade linux-image-raspiUpgrade linux-image-aws-64k-6.17Upgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1008-azureUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1006-realtimeUpgrade linux-image-realtime-6.17Upgrade linux-image-generic-64kUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1007-oracleUpgrade linux-image-azure-6.17Upgrade linux-image-oracle-6.17Upgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1007-oracle-64kUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1007-aws-64kUpgrade linux-image-gcp-64k-6.17Upgrade linux-image-azureUpgrade linux-image-generic-64k-6.17Upgrade linux-image-gcp-64kUpgrade linux-image-generic-6.17Upgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1007-gcpUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-14-genericUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1008-raspiUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1007-gcp-64kUpgrade linux-image-6.17.0-1007-awsUpgrade linux-image-oem-6.17 | Feb 13, 2026 | Feb 12, 2026 |
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