# CVE-2026-23117: ice: add missing ice_deinit_hw() in devlink reinit path

> A missing hardware deinitialization call in the Intel ice driver causes a NULL pointer dereference and system crash during device removal after a failed reload.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 14 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-23117, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23117, GHSA-6pp9-r78q-5hwx, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23117

## What is CVE-2026-23117?

CVE-2026-23117 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 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:

ice: add missing ice_deinit_hw() in devlink reinit path

devlink-reload results in ice_init_hw failed error, and then removing
the ice driver causes a NULL pointer dereference.

[  +0.102213] ice 0000:ca:00.0: ice_init_hw failed: -16
...
[  +0.000001] Call Trace:
[  +0.000003]  <TASK>
[  +0.000006]  ice_unload+0x8f/0x100 [ice]
[  +0.000081]  ice_remove+0xba/0x300 [ice]

Commit 1390b8b3d2be ("ice: remove duplicate call to ice_deinit_hw() on
error paths") removed ice_deinit_hw() from ice_deinit_dev(). As a result
ice_devlink_reinit_down() no longer calls ice_deinit_hw(), but
ice_devlink_reinit_up() still calls ice_init_hw(). Since the control
queues are not uninitialized, ice_init_hw() fails with -EBUSY.

Add ice_deinit_hw() to ice_devlink_reinit_down() to correspond with
ice_init_hw() in ice_devlink_reinit_up().

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23117?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23117?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23117 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23117 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-2026-23117 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23117 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 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-2026-23117 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-2026-23117/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23117/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23117
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23117
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23117

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23117/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.