Linux Kernel up to 6.18.52 irqchip-gic-v5 irq_eoi denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.52. This affects the function irq_eoi of the component irqchip-gic-v5. The manipulation results in denial of service. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-98878. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.52. Affected is the function irq_eoi of the component irqchip-gic-v5. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: irqchip/gic-v5: Immediately exec priority drop following activate With GICv5 an interrupt of equal or lower priority cannot be signalled until there has been a priority drop. This is done via the GIC CDEOI system instruction. Once this has been executed, the hardware is able to signal the next interrupt if there is one. As all interrupts are programmed to have the same priority, no new interrupts can be signalled until the priority drop has happened. This can cause issues when, for example, an interrupt remains active while a long running process takes place, such as when injecting a physical interrupt into a guest VM in software. The GICv5 driver has so far done the priority drop as part of irq_eoi(), i.e., at the same time as deactivating the interrupt. This means that any long running process (or VM) could block incoming interrupts, effectively causing a denial of service for all other interrupts. Rather than doing the EOI as part of irq_eoi() (which the name would suggest would be a good place for it), move it to happen immediately after acknowledging an interrupt in the main GICv5 interrupt handler. The deactivation of interrupts (GIC CDDI) remains implemented as part of irq_eoi(), which means that the same interrupt cannot be signalled a second time until deactivated by software.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-98878 since 09/25/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/23/2026). This vulnerability is assigned to T1499 by the MITRE ATT&CK project.

Upgrading to version 6.18.53 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c29bb5acd0cad0b49399d1399dd1bacb39e41438/abf60331ebe9a9a7937a72aac7699c2907ab9307 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-108672). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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