# CVE-2026-97948: powerpc/eeh: Fix recursive locking on devices without EEH sensitive driver

> A recursive locking bug in the Linux kernel's PowerPC EEH subsystem can cause a system hang when specific hardware errors occur.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 25 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-104546, BELL-CVE-2026-97948, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97948, GHSA-wgj5-j7wg-2jm2, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97948

## What is CVE-2026-97948?

CVE-2026-97948 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 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:

powerpc/eeh: Fix recursive locking on devices without EEH sensitive driver

The commit 1010b4c012b0 ("powerpc/eeh: Make EEH driver device hotplug
safe") refactored the EEH code such that the pci_rescan_remove_lock is
held at the beginning of eeh_handle_normal_event() and the
eeh_reset_device() is called with that lock being held. Looks like the
commit missed to remove the existing lock/unlock inside eeh_rmv_device()
which is no longer necessary. This is causing the eehd to hang on the
lock which it actually holds when that code path is taken.

[<0>] 0xc00000011c78f870
[<0>] __switch_to+0xfc/0x1a0
[<0>] pci_lock_rescan_remove+0x30/0x44
[<0>] eeh_rmv_device+0x290/0x2e0
[<0>] eeh_pe_dev_traverse+0x80/0x130
[<0>] eeh_reset_device+0xcc/0x23c
[<0>] eeh_handle_normal_event+0x830/0xa80
[<0>] eeh_event_handler+0xf8/0x190
[<0>] kthread+0x194/0x1b0
[<0>] start_kernel_thread+0x14/0x18

The issue is seen for cases where the errors are detected on the PHB
directly AND|OR for devices where the driver error_detected() returns
PCI_ERS_RESULT_NEED_RESET, and driver being not EEH sensitive(i.e no
error handlers like slot_reset(), resume() etc defined).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97948?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-97948?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-97948 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97948 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-97948 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-97948 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 Sep 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-2026-97948 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-2026-97948/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97948/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-97948
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97948
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-97948

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97948/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.