New 2026 M5 Pro MBP kernel panic

[rontheancient]

Bought the new 2026 14" M5 Pro MBP and within the first few days of use I noticed it would kernel panic. It only happens when I wake it from opening the lid and occurs about 1-2 times a day.

Instead of a Touch ID prompt to log back into my existing session, I would be at the full login screen normally seen on reboot to decrypt FileVault. Each time this happens, the same kernel panic is logged:

{"bug_type":"210","timestamp":"2026-04-11 09:38:16.00 -0700","os_version":"macOS 26.4.1 (25E253)","roots_installed":0,"incident_id":"3D584217-ADD8-42BA-AC9F-7649F78E1D0C"}
{
  "crashReporterKey" : "0F74D69E-0D29-0116-5370-775AF045F677",
  "panicProcessingFlags" : "0x0",
  "product" : "Mac17,9",
  "kernel" : "Darwin Kernel Version 25.4.0: Thu Mar 19 19:33:50 PDT 2026; root:xnu-12377.101.15~1\/RELEASE_ARM64_T6050",
  "socRevision" : "11",
  "panicString" : "panic(cpu 2 caller 0xfffffe004eabae8c): skmem_slab_free_locked: attempt to free invalid or already-freed obj 0xf7fffe1d4c5bf200 on skm 0xf7fffe29e9178400 @skmem_slab.c:646\nDebugger

This has happened on two identical MBPs so far, both have been DFU restored to the latest MacOS.

1. The first MBP was brand new and thought to be defective hardware. The Genius at the Apple Store said as much and was going to replace the logic board after it passed MRI and other in-store diagnostics. I opted to exchange the unit with the reseller I bought it from.
2. The second MBP was also brand new. It started exhibting the same symtpoms and same kernel panic signature.

There are two identical reports on Reddit and Apple's Developer Forum, the latter suggests it's a bug specific to M5 MacBooks and A18 Neos, but has anyone here seen similar?

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/1ry2ypi/help_needed_m5_macbook_pro_restarting_in_error

developer.apple.com/forums/thread/821372

 

[Juraj22]

It is SW bug. M5 family of CPUs have "Memory integrity enforcement" finally enabled system wide. Every SW that will cause memory related bug will crash instead of undefined behavior. And that is great. Because bugs will be found and fixed. It is much harder to make successful exploit on new CPUs. Apple will most likely fix this soon. Maybe already fixed in beta.