CVE-2026-80648 pinctrl: spacemit: fix NULL check in spacemit_pin_set_config
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel pinctrl driver can cause a system crash when configuring specific pins.
- 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-2026-80648?
CVE-2026-80648 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 28 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:
pinctrl: spacemit: fix NULL check in spacemit_pin_set_config
spacemit_pin_set_config() looks up the per-pin descriptor with spacemit_get_pin() then checks the wrong variable for failure:
const struct spacemit_pin *spin = spacemit_get_pin(pctrl, pin); ... if (!pin) return -EINVAL;
reg = spacemit_pin_to_reg(pctrl, spin->pin);
pin is an unsigned int pin id, where 0 (GPIO_0 / gmac0_rxdv on K3) is a valid pin, so rejecting it here drops the PAD config write for the first pin of every group. On K3 Pico-ITX the GMAC RGMII group lists pin 0 as its first entry, so its drive-strength / bias configuration was silently ignored.
The intended guard is against spacemit_get_pin() returning NULL when the pin id isn't in the SoC's pin table. Check spin instead, which both restores PAD setup for pin 0 and prevents a NULL deref on spin->pin.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-80648?
How do I fix CVE-2026-80648?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-80648 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80648 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-80648, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-80648, GHSA-v3gv-j32h-qw62, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80648.