[BUG] drivers/tty: NULL pointer dereference in paste_selection()
From: co
Date: Thu Aug 27 2026 - 08:49:29 EST
We found a bug reachable in:
path drivers/tty/vt/selection.c` (fault site), `drivers/accessibility/speakup/main.c` + `drivers/accessibility/speakup
crash NULL pointer dereference in paste_selection()
commit f5098b6bae76 ("Linux 7.2-rc5")
Config, environment, the sanitizer report and a C reproducer follow.
== Notes ===============================================================
If you patch the bug based on our artifacts, a tag would be
appreciated:
Reported-by: co+e5693071d903b832@xxxxxxx
Everything in this mail is validated by the reproducer below.
We also hold an LLM-generated root-cause analysis and a candidate
patch. The patch passes an A/B test: the same reproducer panics the
unpatched kernel and runs clean on the patched one. Neither has had
human review, so both still require validation before you send or
apply them. Available on:
patch.diff https://bugs.sh/b/e5693071d903b832/patch.diff
report.md https://bugs.sh/b/e5693071d903b832/report.md
This is an open science project. The code and the full set of PoCs
are not public at this moment, as we intend to disclose our findings
in an ethical way.
Happy to test patches. Complaints and suggestions about our work
are welcome at:
cedalion@xxxxxxx
== Environment =========================================================
Reproduced on f5098b6bae76 ("Linux 7.2-rc5")
VM setup https://bugs.sh/b/e5693071d903b832/run.sh
config https://bugs.sh/b/e5693071d903b832/config.gz
poc https://bugs.sh/b/e5693071d903b832/repro.c
== Sanitizer Report ====================================================
Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000044: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000220-0x0000000000000227]
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 49 Comm: kworker/1:1 Not tainted 7.2.0-rc5 #10 PREEMPTLAZY
Workqueue: events __speakup_paste_selection
RIP: 0010:paste_selection (drivers/tty/vt/selection.c:393)
Call Trace:
__speakup_paste_selection (drivers/accessibility/speakup/selection.c:112)
process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3322)
worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3405 kernel/workqueue.c:3486)
kthread (kernel/kthread.c:436)
ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158)
ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245)
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception
---
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See https://github.com/n132/cedalion for more information.
For any issue with this report, reach out to cedalion@xxxxxxx
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