# CVE-2026-23469: drm/imagination: Synchronize interrupts before suspending the GPU

> A race condition in the Imagination GPU driver causes kernel crashes during suspension, leading to denial of service.

- **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:** 3 Apr 2026
- **Updated:** 1 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-23469, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23469, GHSA-g8qg-gq79-mx69, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23469, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23469, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23469

## What is CVE-2026-23469?

CVE-2026-23469 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Apr 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:

drm/imagination: Synchronize interrupts before suspending the GPU

The runtime PM suspend callback doesn't know whether the IRQ handler is
in progress on a different CPU core and doesn't wait for it to finish.

Depending on timing, the IRQ handler could be running while the GPU is
suspended, leading to kernel crashes when trying to access GPU
registers. See example signature below.

In a power off sequence initiated by the runtime PM suspend callback,
wait for any IRQ handlers in progress on other CPU cores to finish, by
calling synchronize_irq().

At the same time, remove the runtime PM resume/put calls in the threaded
IRQ handler. On top of not being the right approach to begin with, and
being at the wrong place as they should have wrapped all GPU register
accesses, the driver would hit a deadlock between synchronize_irq()
being called from a runtime PM suspend callback, holding the device
power lock, and the resume callback requiring the same.

Example crash signature on a TI AM68 SK platform:

  [  337.241218] SError Interrupt on CPU0, code 0x00000000bf000000 -- SError
  [  337.241239] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 112 Comm: irq/234-gpu Tainted: G   M                6.17.7-B2C-00005-g9c7bbe4ea16c #2 PREEMPT
  [  337.241246] Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK
  [  337.241249] Hardware name: Texas Instruments AM68 SK (DT)
  [  337.241252] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
  [  337.241256] pc : pvr_riscv_irq_pending+0xc/0x24
  [  337.241277] lr : pvr_device_irq_thread_handler+0x64/0x310
  [  337.241282] sp : ffff800085b0bd30
  [  337.241284] x29: ffff800085b0bd50 x28: ffff0008070d9eab x27: ffff800083a5ce10
  [  337.241291] x26: ffff000806e48f80 x25: ffff0008070d9eac x24: 0000000000000000
  [  337.241296] x23: ffff0008068e9bf0 x22: ffff0008068e9bd0 x21: ffff800085b0bd30
  [  337.241301] x20: ffff0008070d9e00 x19: ffff0008068e9000 x18: 0000000000000001
  [  337.241305] x17: 637365645f656c70 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: ffff000b7df9ff40
  [  337.241310] x14: 0000a585fe3c0d0e x13: 000000999704f060 x12: 000000000002771a
  [  337.241314] x11: 00000000000000c0 x10: 0000000000000af0 x9 : ffff800085b0bd00
  [  337.241318] x8 : ffff0008071175d0 x7 : 000000000000b955 x6 : 0000000000000003
  [  337.241323] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000002 x3 : 0000000000000000
  [  337.241327] x2 : ffff800080e39d20 x1 : ffff800080e3fc48 x0 : 0000000000000000
  [  337.241333] Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchronous SError Interrupt
  [  337.241337] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 112 Comm: irq/234-gpu Tainted: G   M                6.17.7-B2C-00005-g9c7bbe4ea16c #2 PREEMPT
  [  337.241342] Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK
  [  337.241343] Hardware name: Texas Instruments AM68 SK (DT)
  [  337.241345] Call trace:
  [  337.241348]  show_stack+0x18/0x24 (C)
  [  337.241357]  dump_stack_lvl+0x60/0x80
  [  337.241364]  dump_stack+0x18/0x24
  [  337.241368]  vpanic+0x124/0x2ec
  [  337.241373]  abort+0x0/0x4
  [  337.241377]  add_taint+0x0/0xbc
  [  337.241384]  arm64_serror_panic+0x70/0x80
  [  337.241389]  do_serror+0x3c/0x74
  [  337.241392]  el1h_64_error_handler+0x30/0x48
  [  337.241400]  el1h_64_error+0x6c/0x70
  [  337.241404]  pvr_riscv_irq_pending+0xc/0x24 (P)
  [  337.241410]  irq_thread_fn+0x2c/0xb0
  [  337.241416]  irq_thread+0x170/0x334
  [  337.241421]  kthread+0x12c/0x210
  [  337.241428]  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
  [  337.241434] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs
  [  337.241451] Kernel Offset: disabled
  [  337.241453] CPU features: 0x040000,02002800,20002001,0400421b
  [  337.241456] Memory Limit: none
  [  337.457921] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchronous SError Interrupt ]---

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23469?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23469?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23469 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23469 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-2026-23469 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23469 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Apr 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-2026-23469 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-2026-23469/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23469/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23469
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23469
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23469

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23469/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
