CVE-2026-64428 gpio: sch: use raw_spinlock_t in the irq startup path

What is CVE-2026-64428?

CVE-2026-64428 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jul 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:

gpio: sch: use raw_spinlock_t in the irq startup path

sch_irq_unmask() enables the GPIO IRQ and then updates the controller state through sch_irq_mask_unmask(), which takes sch->lock with spin_lock_irqsave(). The callback can be reached from irq_startup() while setting up a requested IRQ. That path is not sleepable, but on PREEMPT_RT a regular spinlock_t becomes a sleeping lock.

This issue was found by our static analysis tool and then manually reviewed against the current tree.

The grounded PoC kept the request_threaded_irq() -> __setup_irq() -> irq_startup() -> sch_irq_unmask() -> sch_irq_mask_unmask() carrier and used the original spin_lock_irqsave(&sch->lock) edge. Lockdep reported:

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context hardirqs last disabled at ... __setup_irq.constprop.0 ... [vuln_msv] sch_rt_spin_lock_irqsave+0x1c/0x30 [vuln_msv] sch_irq_mask_unmask.constprop.0+0x31/0x70 [vuln_msv] __setup_irq.constprop.0+0xd/0x30 [vuln_msv]

Convert the SCH controller lock to raw_spinlock_t. The same lock is also used by the GPIO direction and value callbacks, but those critical sections only update MMIO-backed GPIO registers and do not contain sleepable operations. Keeping this register lock non-sleeping is therefore appropriate for the irqchip callbacks and does not change the GPIO-side locking contract.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-64428?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-64428?

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-2026-64428 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-64428 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 AZL-93617, BELL-CVE-2026-64428, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-64428, GHSA-3jvv-rp8p-q944, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-64428, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-64428.