CVE-2026-53196 USB: serial: io_ti: fix heap overflow in get_manuf_info()
A malicious USB device can trigger a heap overflow in the Linux kernel io_ti driver, potentially allowing code execution or privilege escalation.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-53196?
CVE-2026-53196 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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:
USB: serial: io_ti: fix heap overflow in get_manuf_info()
get_manuf_info() reads le16_to_cpu(rom_desc->Size) bytes from the device I2C EEPROM into a buffer allocated with kmalloc_obj(), which is sizeof(struct edge_ti_manuf_descriptor) = 10 bytes.
The Size field comes from the device and is only validated (in check_i2c_image()) to make sure the descriptor fits within TI_MAX_I2C_SIZE (16384 bytes), not against the destination buffer size. A malicious USB device can therefore set Size to any value up to 16377, causing a heap overflow of up to 16367 bytes when plugged into a host running this driver.
valid_csum() is called after read_rom() and also iterates buffer[0..Size-1], compounding the out-of-bounds access.
Fix by rejecting descriptors with unexpected length before calling read_rom().
[ johan: amend commit message; also check for short descriptors ]
Weakness: CWE-787
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53196?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-53196?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-53196 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53196 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-53196, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53196, GHSA-f3q5-7m6p-4qxq, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-53196, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-53196, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-53196 and 2 more.