CVE-2026-74461 i2c: imx: Cancel hrtimer before clearing slave pointer
A race condition in the Linux kernel i2c driver can cause a null pointer dereference, leading to a system crash.
- 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-2026-74461?
CVE-2026-74461 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:
i2c: imx: Cancel hrtimer before clearing slave pointer
In i2c_imx_unreg_slave(), the slave pointer is set to NULL after disabling interrupts. However, a pending interrupt might already have started the hrtimer (i2c_imx_slave_timeout) before the pointer was cleared. If the hrtimer fires after i2c_imx->slave is set to NULL, the timer callback i2c_imx_slave_finish_op() will call i2c_imx_slave_event() with a NULL slave pointer, which results in a use-after-free / NULL pointer dereference.
Fix by canceling the hrtimer and waiting for it to complete after disabling interrupts, before clearing the slave pointer.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74461?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74461?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-74461 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74461 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-96147, BELL-CVE-2026-74461, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74461, GHSA-9hpv-5pc5-wf9w, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74461.