# CVE-2026-23101: leds: led-class: Only Add LED to leds_list when it is fully ready

> A race condition in the Linux kernel LED class allows triggering a warning and potential system instability by accessing uninitialized work structures during LED registration.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 4 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-77142, BELL-CVE-2026-23101, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23101, GHSA-5v65-j3j7-pw24, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-23101, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23101, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23101

## What is CVE-2026-23101?

CVE-2026-23101 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

leds: led-class: Only Add LED to leds_list when it is fully ready

Before this change the LED was added to leds_list before led_init_core()
gets called adding it the list before led_classdev.set_brightness_work gets
initialized.

This leaves a window where led_trigger_register() of a LED's default
trigger will call led_trigger_set() which calls led_set_brightness()
which in turn will end up queueing the *uninitialized*
led_classdev.set_brightness_work.

This race gets hit by the lenovo-thinkpad-t14s EC driver which registers
2 LEDs with a default trigger provided by snd_ctl_led.ko in quick
succession. The first led_classdev_register() causes an async modprobe of
snd_ctl_led to run and that async modprobe manages to exactly hit
the window where the second LED is on the leds_list without led_init_core()
being called for it, resulting in:

 ------------[ cut here ]------------
 WARNING: CPU: 11 PID: 5608 at kernel/workqueue.c:4234 __flush_work+0x344/0x390
 Hardware name: LENOVO 21N2S01F0B/21N2S01F0B, BIOS N42ET93W (2.23 ) 09/01/2025
 ...
 Call trace:
  __flush_work+0x344/0x390 (P)
  flush_work+0x2c/0x50
  led_trigger_set+0x1c8/0x340
  led_trigger_register+0x17c/0x1c0
  led_trigger_register_simple+0x84/0xe8
  snd_ctl_led_init+0x40/0xf88 [snd_ctl_led]
  do_one_initcall+0x5c/0x318
  do_init_module+0x9c/0x2b8
  load_module+0x7e0/0x998

Close the race window by moving the adding of the LED to leds_list to
after the led_init_core() call.

Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource), CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23101?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23101?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23101 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23101 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-23101 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23101 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Feb 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23101 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23101/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23101/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23101
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23101
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23101

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23101/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.