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Fencer Vulns
high 7.0

CVE-2026-31426 json

ACPI: EC: clean up handlers on probe failure in acpi_ec_setup()

published 2026-04-13 6 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-21953

cvss
7.0
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

ACPI: EC: clean up handlers on probe failure in acpi_ec_setup()

When ec_install_handlers() returns -EPROBE_DEFER on reduced-hardware platforms, it has already started the EC and installed the address space handler with the struct acpi_ec pointer as handler context. However, acpi_ec_setup() propagates the error without any cleanup.

The caller acpi_ec_add() then frees the struct acpi_ec for non-boot instances, leaving a dangling handler context in ACPICA.

Any subsequent AML evaluation that accesses an EC OpRegion field dispatches into acpi_ec_space_handler() with the freed pointer, causing a use-after-free:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mutex_lock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:289) Write of size 8 at addr ffff88800721de38 by task init/1 Call Trace: <TASK> mutex_lock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:289) acpi_ec_space_handler (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1362) acpi_ev_address_space_dispatch (drivers/acpi/acpica/evregion.c:293) acpi_ex_access_region (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfldio.c:246) acpi_ex_field_datum_io (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfldio.c:509) acpi_ex_extract_from_field (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfldio.c:700) acpi_ex_read_data_from_field (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfield.c:327) acpi_ex_resolve_node_to_value (drivers/acpi/acpica/exresolv.c:392) </TASK>

Allocated by task 1: acpi_ec_alloc (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1424) acpi_ec_add (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1692)

Freed by task 1: kfree (mm/slub.c:6876) acpi_ec_add (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1751)

The bug triggers on reduced-hardware EC platforms (ec->gpe < 0) when the GPIO IRQ provider defers probing. Once the stale handler exists, any unprivileged sysfs read that causes AML to touch an EC OpRegion (battery, thermal, backlight) exercises the dangling pointer.

Fix this by calling ec_remove_handlers() in the error path of acpi_ec_setup() before clearing first_ec. ec_remove_handlers() checks each EC_FLAGS_* bit before acting, so it is safe to call regardless of how far ec_install_handlers() progressed:

-ENODEV (handler not installed): only calls acpi_ec_stop() -EPROBE_DEFER (handler installed): removes handler, stops EC

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.168, 6.6.131, 6.12.80, 6.18.21, 6.19.11, 7.0
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.170-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.19.11-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31426

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1059.67
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.62
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1063.71
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1046.50
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.65

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31426

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1
  • kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1.150700.17.33.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:2238-1SUSE-SU-2026:21834-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.134.1-2

azure linux advisories AZL-82712

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-31426 updated cvss 5.8

kernel: ACPI: EC: clean up handlers on probe failure in acpi_ec_setup()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
23 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.