CVE-2026-97481 json
serial: 8250: fix possible ISR soft lockup
published 2026-09-24 45 d ago modified 2026-10-03 36 d ago also EUVD-2026-86079
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.2%
- EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 6%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
serial: 8250: fix possible ISR soft lockup
There are rare cases in which the host gets stuck in the ISR because it is flooded with messages during the startup phase.
The reason for the soft lockup in the ISR is the missing FIFO error IRQ (FIFOE) handling. Not handling it and reporting IRQ_HANDLED triggers the IRQ immediately again.
Fix this by adding a check for the FIFOE status and clearing the FIFO if no data is ready (DR).
This behavior was observed on an AM62L device which uses the OMAP 8250 driver. Fix it for all 8250 drivers, since the OMAP driver's special IRQ setup handling may trigger this behavior more frequently, but it is not ensured that other 8250 drivers aren't affected.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.111, 6.18.53, 7.2
- linux Debian 12 6.1.190-1
- linux Debian 13 6.12.111-1
- linux Debian 14 7.2.6-1
- linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.111-1~deb12u1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97481
- linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-202.212
- linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
- linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1119.126
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1120.130
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
- linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1115.121
- linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1113.117
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97481
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-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
- kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
- kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1
- kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-159998.55.1.159998.21.42
- kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
- kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
- kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
- kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.90.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:24550-1SUSE-SU-2026:5091-1
- kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.158.1-1
azure linux advisories AZL-104010
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
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/4bce4a6f6318035d77d6b6199527b1950bb015f4 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/8b67af8cd90542b2607623e3282811849e191b79 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/95d0b40c0623fd2b58c753f8dd6adda7263e3cd1 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/03ed804a0ddc3d069faf94c47f9e702afe5ca084 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/2881b2e6da02daea1eb8254247ba8fd20c9d3348 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/4295c58990b7a84e8349a2226db692e252825b60 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/0c6bf45e5a345cc3b9ffbeaf9083ecac3c2293eb commit
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-2026-97481 updated cvss 5.5
kernel: serial: 8250: fix possible ISR soft lockup
-
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 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 morenot 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
Exploit prediction
0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/4bce4a6f6318035d77d6b6199527b1950bb015f4
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/8b67af8cd90542b2607623e3282811849e191b79
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/95d0b40c0623fd2b58c753f8dd6adda7263e3cd1
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/03ed804a0ddc3d069faf94c47f9e702afe5ca084
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/2881b2e6da02daea1eb8254247ba8fd20c9d3348
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/4295c58990b7a84e8349a2226db692e252825b60
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/0c6bf45e5a345cc3b9ffbeaf9083ecac3c2293eb
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-97481
- NVD CVE-2026-97481
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.