CVE-2026-53281
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. 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
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
6.12.57,
6.13.3,
6.14
and later are affected. Fixed in
6.18.33,
7.0.10,
7.1
and their respective stable series.
References
3 totalFrequently asked questions
-
What is CVE-2026-53281?
CVE-2026-53281 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.12.57 onward and has been patched in 6.18.33, 7.0.10 and 7.1. CVE-2026-53281 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
-
Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-53281?
Yes — CVE-2026-53281 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.18.33, 7.0.10 and 7.1. If you are running Linux kernel 6.12.57 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
-
Is CVE-2026-53281 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-53281 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.