A flaw in the MPFS RTC driver caused the kernel to dereference an error pointer returned by devm_clk_get() when initializing a clock. Because the code does not verify the pointer before using clk_get_rate(), a failure such as an expected ERR_PTR(-EPROBE_DEFER) results in a null-pointer dereference. The kernel panics during probe instead of deferring, leading to an unrecoverable system crash. The vulnerability is an unchecked return value that can be triggered when the driver loads or when the clock provider is not yet available, making it a local kernel denial‑of‑service flaw.

All Linux kernel builds that contain the MPFS RTC driver before the patch commit described in the kernel repositories. Any system using a kernel version without this fix is vulnerable; specific versions are not listed in the advisory, so any unpatched release is affected.

The CVSS score is 4.1, indicating a low impact. The EPSS score is < 1%, implying a very low probability of exploitation. The CVE is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. Because the vulnerability is a local kernel denial‑of‑service flaw that only triggers when the MPFS RTC driver probes, the attack requires local privileges or the ability to load the driver, limiting exploitation to systems that use the vulnerable module.