FKIE_CVE-2026-64205

Vulnerability from fkie_nvd - Published: 2026-07-20 17:18 - Updated: 2026-07-20 17:18
Severity
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: i801: fix hardware state machine corruption in error path A severe livelock and subsequent Hung Task panic were observed in the i2c-i801 driver during concurrent Fuzzing. The crash is caused by an unconditional hardware register cleanup in the error handling path of i801_access(). When i801_check_pre() fails (e.g., returning -EBUSY because the SMBus controller is actively used by BIOS/ACPI), the kernel does not actually acquire the hardware ownership. However, the code jumps to the 'out' label and executes: iowrite8(SMBHSTSTS_INUSE_STS | STATUS_FLAGS, SMBHSTSTS(priv)); This forcefully clears the INUSE_STS lock and resets the hardware status flags without owning the controller. Doing so interrupts ongoing BIOS/ACPI transactions and totally corrupts the SMBus hardware state machine. Consequently, all subsequent i801_access() calls fail at the pre-check stage, triggering an endless stream of "SMBus is busy, can't use it!" error logs. Over a slow serial console, this printk flood monopolizes the CPU (Console Livelock), starving other processes trying to acquire the mmap_lock down_read semaphore, ultimately triggering the hung task watchdog. Fix this by moving the 'out' label below the hardware register cleanup. If i801_check_pre() fails, we safely bypass the iowrite8() and only release the software locks (pm_runtime and mutex), strictly adhering to the rule of not releasing resources that were never acquired.
References
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00904687b9c5527d569d9a1ca72119823e735a61
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/10dd1a736d557e310a77117832874729a0175d57
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bb5133a7d5f3fe5c387770e25f2e00e682ce11ed
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-i801.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThan": "bb5133a7d5f3fe5c387770e25f2e00e682ce11ed",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "1f760b87e54cf56a25ab68f8dc625e339f6e46d5",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "00904687b9c5527d569d9a1ca72119823e735a61",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "1f760b87e54cf56a25ab68f8dc625e339f6e46d5",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "10dd1a736d557e310a77117832874729a0175d57",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "1f760b87e54cf56a25ab68f8dc625e339f6e46d5",
              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "defaultStatus": "affected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-i801.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.3"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "6.3",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.18.39",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "7.1.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.1.4",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.2-rc1",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
    }
  ],
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ni2c: i801: fix hardware state machine corruption in error path\n\nA severe livelock and subsequent Hung Task panic were observed in the\ni2c-i801 driver during concurrent Fuzzing. The crash is caused by an\nunconditional hardware register cleanup in the error handling path of\ni801_access().\n\nWhen i801_check_pre() fails (e.g., returning -EBUSY because the SMBus\ncontroller is actively used by BIOS/ACPI), the kernel does not actually\nacquire the hardware ownership. However, the code jumps to the \u0027out\u0027\nlabel and executes:\n\n    iowrite8(SMBHSTSTS_INUSE_STS | STATUS_FLAGS, SMBHSTSTS(priv));\n\nThis forcefully clears the INUSE_STS lock and resets the hardware status\nflags without owning the controller. Doing so interrupts ongoing BIOS/ACPI\ntransactions and totally corrupts the SMBus hardware state machine.\n\nConsequently, all subsequent i801_access() calls fail at the pre-check\nstage, triggering an endless stream of \"SMBus is busy, can\u0027t use it!\"\nerror logs. Over a slow serial console, this printk flood monopolizes\nthe CPU (Console Livelock), starving other processes trying to acquire\nthe mmap_lock down_read semaphore, ultimately triggering the hung task\nwatchdog.\n\nFix this by moving the \u0027out\u0027 label below the hardware register cleanup.\nIf i801_check_pre() fails, we safely bypass the iowrite8() and only\nrelease the software locks (pm_runtime and mutex), strictly adhering to\nthe rule of not releasing resources that were never acquired."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-64205",
  "lastModified": "2026-07-20T17:18:22.487",
  "metrics": {},
  "published": "2026-07-20T17:18:22.487",
  "references": [
    {
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00904687b9c5527d569d9a1ca72119823e735a61"
    },
    {
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/10dd1a736d557e310a77117832874729a0175d57"
    },
    {
      "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bb5133a7d5f3fe5c387770e25f2e00e682ce11ed"
    }
  ],
  "sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
  "vulnStatus": "Received"
}



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