CVE-2026-53169 accel/ethosu: reject NPU_OP_RESIZE commands from userspace

What is CVE-2026-53169?

CVE-2026-53169 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jun 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:

accel/ethosu: reject NPU_OP_RESIZE commands from userspace

NPU_OP_RESIZE is a U85-only command that the driver does not yet implement. The existing WARN_ON(1) placeholder fires unconditionally whenever userspace submits this command via DRM_IOCTL_ETHOSU_GEM_CREATE, causing unbounded kernel log spam.

If panic_on_warn is set the kernel panics, giving any unprivileged user with access to the DRM device a trivial denial-of-service primitive.

Replace the WARN_ON(1) with an explicit -EINVAL return so the ioctl rejects the command before it reaches hardware.

Weakness: CWE-617

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53169?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-53169?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2026-53169 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53169 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53169, GHSA-jhr3-25h7-qp3m, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53169.