CVE-2026-74683 Input: evdev - sanitize event type index when fetching event masks
A local attacker can exploit speculative execution flaws in the Linux kernel evdev driver to read sensitive memory contents via out-of-bounds loads.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-74683?
CVE-2026-74683 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 22 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:
Input: evdev - sanitize event type index when fetching event masks
The user-supplied event type index passed to EVIOCGMASK / EVIOCSMASK ioctls is used to index the static counts array in evdev_get_mask_cnt() and client evmasks array in evdev_get_mask().
While the event type is architecturally bounded by EV_CNT, speculative execution may mispredict bounds checks and perform out-of-bounds loads.
Sanitize the event type index in evdev_get_mask_cnt() branchlessly using array_index_mask_nospec(). This clamps the index to 0 for safe array access and forces the returned count to 0 speculatively when the index is out of bounds.
We do not need additional array_index_nospec() calls in evdev_get_mask() because evdev_get_mask_cnt() speculatively forces the count (and resulting xfer_size) to 0 for out-of-bounds types, preventing any speculative memory access to client evmasks array.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74683?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74683?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-74683 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74683 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-97269, BELL-CVE-2026-74683, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74683, GHSA-76mx-gxxj-5f36, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74683.