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CVE-2026-53281

Status: ModifiedHigh (8.8)—

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

iommu/vt-d: Avoid NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption

Commit 60f030f7418d ("iommu/vt-d: Avoid use of NULL after WARN_ON_ONCE") fixed a NULL pointer dereference in an unlikely situation partly.

If dev_pasid is not found in the dev_pasids list, it remains NULL. However, the teardown operations are executed unconditionally, this lead to a NULL pointer dereference or refcount corruption.

If the domain was never attached to this IOMMU, info will be NULL, which would cause an immediate dereference when checking --info->refcnt.

Read full descriptionShow less

Even if info is not NULL, decrementing the refcount without having removed a valid PASID might unbalance the count. This could lead to premature dropping of the refcount to 0, potentially causing a use-after-free for the remaining active devices sharing the domain.

Fix it by returning early if dev_pasid is NULL, before executing the teardown operations.

Issue found by AI review and suggested by Kevin Tian. https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260421031347.1408890-1-zhenzhong.duan%40intel.com

CVSS

Exploitation probability (EPSS)

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST) estimates how likely a vulnerability is to be exploited in the wild within 30 days. It complements CVSS (impact) and CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).

🎯 ATT&CK techniques

How this vulnerability is exploited and what the attacker gains, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

AV:L + PR:L + ejecución local en kernel permite escalar privilegios (T1068). Impactos: corrupción de refcount y use-after-free permiten ejecución arbitraria (T1059) o DoS (T1499.004) en el kernel.

Inferred by our analysis agent from the official description, CVSS vector and CWE, and checked by a supervisor. May contain errors.

🛡️ ATT&CK mitigations that cover these techniques

Execution PreventionThreat Intelligence ProgramRestrict Web-Based ContentPrivileged Account ManagementLimit Software InstallationFilter Network Traffic

Affected technologies (1)

Linux — Linux Kernel

CWEs

References

Raw JSON (NVD)

Show
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