Linux Kernel Null Dereference Vulnerability in /proc/pid/smaps_rollup

A null pointer dereference vulnerability has been introduced in the Linux kernel's /proc/pid/smaps_rollup feature. This issue arises when there are no virtual memory areas (VMAs) associated with a task, leading to a null dereference in the show_smaps_rollup function. The vulnerability was introduced by a commit that converted the smaps_rollup handling to a single value sequence file, and it has been fixed in a subsequent commit.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability leads to a null pointer dereference, which can cause a kernel crash or potentially be exploited for arbitrary code execution in the kernel context.