# CVE-2026-98143: accel: ethosu: Don't read the U65 rounding mode as a storage mode

> A logic error in the Linux kernel Ethos-U driver causes valid command streams to fail, leading to denial of service for userspace applications.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 25 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-98143, GHSA-m67f-86jg-mhm5, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-98143

## What is CVE-2026-98143?

CVE-2026-98143 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, 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:

accel: ethosu: Don't read the U65 rounding mode as a storage mode

Bits 15:14 of NPU_SET_{IFM,OFM}_PRECISION select the activation storage
mode on U85 only. On U65 the same field holds the rounding mode, and the
command stream parser has read it as a storage mode since the driver was
added.

That went unnoticed while unknown values fell through the switch, but
now that they are rejected, every U65 command stream that asks for
natural rounding (2) fails CMDSTREAM_BO_CREATE with -EINVAL. Mesa emits
it for average pooling, concatenation, split, unpack, strided slice, LUT
and argmax, which is 72 failures of the Teflon test suite on an i.MX93.
Truncating rounding (1) is misread as well: it picks the two-tile
address path and computes a bogus feature map size from tile bases the
command stream never set.

Read the field as a storage mode only on the hardware where it is one.

Weakness: CWE-681 (Incorrect Conversion between Numeric Types)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-98143?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-98143?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-98143 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-98143 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-98143 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-98143 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, 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-2026-98143 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2026-98143/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98143/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98143
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98143
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-98143

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-98143/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.