CVE-2026-97969 watchdog: msc313e: Fix clock leak and spurious timer in settimeout()
A local attacker with high privileges can cause a clock reference leak and spurious timer activation in the MSC313E watchdog driver, leading to potential denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-97969?
CVE-2026-97969 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:
watchdog: msc313e: Fix clock leak and spurious timer in settimeout()
msc313e_wdt_settimeout() unconditionally calls msc313e_wdt_start() which introduces two severe bugs:
1. If the watchdog is already active, calling start() again will increase the reference count of the clock again. However stop() is only called once, the reference count is unbalance. 2. If the watchdog is stopped, calling settimeout() will start the hardware timer accidentally.
Factor out the register-writing logic into a helper function. Only call it in settimeout() if the watchdog is running. Otherwise, simply update `wdev->timeout`.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97969?
How do I fix CVE-2026-97969?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-97969 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97969 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-104220, BELL-CVE-2026-97969, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97969, GHSA-c6r8-8m99-q662, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97969.