CVE-2026-80950 i3c: renesas: Check that the transfer is valid before accessing it
A race condition in the Renesas I3C driver allows accessing freed memory after a timeout, causing kernel crashes.
- 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-2026-80950?
CVE-2026-80950 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 11 Sep 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:
i3c: renesas: Check that the transfer is valid before accessing it
The Renesas I3C driver uses an asynchronous model to transfer data. It prepares a struct renesas_i3c_xfer, enqueues it, and waits for completion. The interrupt handler dequeues the transfer, updates/uses it, and signals the waiting thread.
If the completion times out, the waiting thread dequeues the transfer and free it. If an interrupt fires after that, the handler may access freed memory, leading to crashes.
Check that the transfer is still valid before accessing it in the interrupt handler. With it clear any status flags and disable all the interrupts to avoid triggering the same interrupts again.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-80950?
How do I fix CVE-2026-80950?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2026-80950 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80950 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-80950, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-80950, GHSA-74cf-jhfv-j2fx, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80950.