CVE-2026-53170 (GCVE-0-2026-53170)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2026-06-25 08:38
Modified
2026-08-05 12:33
Severity ?
8.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: accel/ethosu: reject DMA commands with uninitialized length cmd_state_init() initializes the command state with memset(0xff), leaving dma->len at U64_MAX to signal missing setup. The only setter is NPU_SET_DMA0_LEN; if userspace omits this command and issues NPU_OP_DMA_START, dma->len remains U64_MAX. In dma_length(), a positive stride added to U64_MAX wraps to a small value. With size0 == 1, check_mul_overflow() does not trigger and dma_length() returns 0 instead of U64_MAX. The caller's U64_MAX check then passes, region_size[] stays 0, and the bounds check in ethosu_job.c is bypassed, allowing hardware to execute DMA with stale physical addresses. Fix by checking for U64_MAX at the start of dma_length() before any arithmetic, consistent with the sentinel value used throughout the driver to detect uninitialized fields.
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Version: 5a5e9c0228e613f0ef2a58b9782d7c0ea8f1e58b
Version: 5a5e9c0228e613f0ef2a58b9782d7c0ea8f1e58b
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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/accel/ethosu/ethosu_gem.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThan": "fb25c76a820ca8a547aa478bfb503da0a11494ab",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "5a5e9c0228e613f0ef2a58b9782d7c0ea8f1e58b",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "d9d021218162b6c4fe0bdf42b2b340f1aae23a12",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "5a5e9c0228e613f0ef2a58b9782d7c0ea8f1e58b",
              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "defaultStatus": "affected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/accel/ethosu/ethosu_gem.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.19"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "6.19",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "7.0.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.0.13",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.1",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "cpeApplicability": [
        {
          "nodes": [
            {
              "cpeMatch": [
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "7.0.13",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.19",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "7.1",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.19",
                  "vulnerable": true
                }
              ],
              "negate": false,
              "operator": "OR"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\naccel/ethosu: reject DMA commands with uninitialized length\n\ncmd_state_init() initializes the command state with memset(0xff),\nleaving dma-\u003elen at U64_MAX to signal missing setup. The only setter\nis NPU_SET_DMA0_LEN; if userspace omits this command and issues\nNPU_OP_DMA_START, dma-\u003elen remains U64_MAX.\n\nIn dma_length(), a positive stride added to U64_MAX wraps to a small\nvalue. With size0 == 1, check_mul_overflow() does not trigger and\ndma_length() returns 0 instead of U64_MAX. The caller\u0027s U64_MAX check\nthen passes, region_size[] stays 0, and the bounds check in\nethosu_job.c is bypassed, allowing hardware to execute DMA with stale\nphysical addresses.\n\nFix by checking for U64_MAX at the start of dma_length() before any\narithmetic, consistent with the sentinel value used throughout the\ndriver to detect uninitialized fields."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "baseScore": 8.8,
            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
          "scenarios": [
            {
              "lang": "en",
              "value": "AV:L - The vulnerable path is reached through local DRM accel device ioctls for Ethos-U command stream creation and job submission. There is no network, adjacent, or physical packet/device insertion path to this parser.\nAC:L - The attacker controls the userspace command stream, can omit NPU_SET_DMA0_LEN, set the DMA mode/stride/size values needed for wraparound, and can prime stale base registers with prior jobs. No race or condition outside the attacker\u2019s control is required.\nPR:L - The Ethos-U ioctls are registered without DRM_ROOT_ONLY, DRM_AUTH, or DRM_MASTER checks, so no kernel capability or administrator privilege is required. Exploitation requires a local low-privileged user able to open the accel device node.\nUI:N - Once the local attacker can issue the ioctls, the command stream validation bypass and hardware job execution occur without any victim action. No user needs to open a file, mount anything, or approve the job.\nS:C - The bug lets a userspace client drive an external DMA-capable NPU using stale DMA addresses outside the per-job GEM/DMA isolation the driver is supposed to enforce. This is a DMA boundary bypass, so impact can extend beyond the vulnerable parser\u2019s normal security authority.\nC:H - A malicious DMA command can use a stale source base address and copy data from another or freed DMA mapping into attacker-controlled memory. In the highest reasonable embedded deployment, stale physical DMA access can expose sensitive kernel or cross-process memory.\nI:H - A malicious DMA command can use a stale destination base address and write attacker-controlled data outside the authorized GEM buffer. This can corrupt other DMA buffers or reused kernel memory and is defensibly an arbitrary memory modification primitive.\nA:H - Invalid or malicious DMA can trigger NPU bus faults, scheduler resets, hangs, or broader kernel memory corruption. Repeated local submission can therefore cause high availability impact."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T12:33:39.324Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fb25c76a820ca8a547aa478bfb503da0a11494ab"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d9d021218162b6c4fe0bdf42b2b340f1aae23a12"
        }
      ],
      "title": "accel/ethosu: reject DMA commands with uninitialized length",
      "x_generator": {
        "engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-53170",
    "datePublished": "2026-06-25T08:38:48.728Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-06-09T07:44:35.389Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T12:33:39.324Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.2"
}


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