Linux Kernel up to 6.18.52 pinctrl mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction can_sleep/gpio_set_direction resource management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.52. The impacted element is the function mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction of the component pinctrl. This manipulation of the argument can_sleep/gpio_set_direction causes resource management. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-97501. The attack can only be executed locally. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.52. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction of the component pinctrl. The manipulation of the argument can_sleep/gpio_set_direction with an unknown input leads to a resource management vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-399. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pinctrl: mediatek: paris: bypass pinctrl GPIO layer in set GPIO direction pinctrl_gpio_direction_input() / pinctrl_gpio_direction_output() take the pinctrl mutex. This causes a gpiochip operations to need to sleep. Worse yet, the .can_sleep field in the gpiochip is not set. This causes the shared GPIO proxy to trip over, as it uses gpiod_cansleep() to check whether it can use a spinlock or needs a mutex. In this case, it ends up taking a spinlock, then calls pinctrl_gpio_direction_output(), which takes a mutex. This causes a huge warning. While this class of Mediatek hardware does not have separate clear/set registers, the pinctrl context has a spinlock that is taken whenever a register read-modify-write is done. Also, once the GPIO function is selected / muxed in, further GPIO operations do not involve pinctrl operations or state. The GPIO direction and level values do not require toggling the pinmux or any other pin config options. Switch to directly calling mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction() in the GPIO set direction callbacks to avoid taking the pinctrl mutex. Drop the .gpio_set_direction field in mtk_pmxops to signal we are no longer using the pinctrl GPIO layer for setting the direction.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-97501 since 09/24/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. Additional levels of successful authentication are needed for exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 6.18.53 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b/c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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