# 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.

- **Severity:** High 8.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 16 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-96147, BELL-CVE-2026-74461, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74461, GHSA-9hpv-5pc5-wf9w, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74461

## 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.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-74461 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74461 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-74461/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74461/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-74461
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74461
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-74461

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-74461/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.