CVE-2026-63942
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: parport: Fix race between port and client registration The parport subsystem registers port devices before they are fully initialised, resulting in a race condition where client drivers such as lp can attach to ports that are not completely initialised or even being torn down. When the port and client drivers are built as modules and loaded around the same time during boot, this occasionally results in a crash. I was able to make this happen reliably in a VM with a PC-style parallel port by patching parport_pc to fail probing: > --- a/drivers/parport/parport_pc.c > +++ b/drivers/parport/parport_pc.c > @@ -2069,7 +2069,7 @@ static struct parport *__parport_pc_probe_port(unsigned long int base, > if (!p) > goto out3; > > - base_res = request_region(base, 3, p->name); > + base_res = NULL; > if (!base_res) > goto out4; > and then running: while true; do modprobe lp & modprobe parport_pc wait rmmod lp parport_pc done for a few seconds. In the long term I think port registration should be changed to put the call to device_add() inside parport_announce_port(), but since the latter currently cannot fail this will require changing all port drivers. For now, add a flag to indicate whether a port has been "announced" and only try to attach client drivers to ports when the flag is set.
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
4.2
and later are affected. Fixed in
5.10.259,
5.15.210,
6.1.176,
6.6.143,
6.12.93,
6.18.35,
7.0.12,
7.1
and their respective stable series.
References
8 totalFrequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2026-63942?
CVE-2026-63942 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 4.2 onward and has been patched in 5.10.259, 5.15.210, 6.1.176 and others. CVE-2026-63942 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-63942?
Yes — CVE-2026-63942 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.259, 5.15.210, 6.1.176 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 4.2 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
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Is CVE-2026-63942 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-63942 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.