Boot failure via unmasked UCSI connector count
Published Jan 14, 2026 · Updated Jan 14, 2026
Improper capability validation in affected Linux Kernel releases allows local users to prevent boot through malformed UCSI firmware data. The ucsi_init function trusts the reserved high bit in cap.num_connectors, then uses the inflated count when allocating and initializing connector state. Triggering requires UCSI platform firmware that sets bit 8; the documented consequence is a boot hang on affected hardware, with no reported data disclosure or modification.
Summary
What happened
Improper capability validation in affected Linux Kernel releases allows local users to prevent boot through malformed UCSI firmware data. The ucsi_init function trusts the reserved high bit in cap.num_connectors, then uses the inflated count when allocating and initializing connector state. Triggering requires UCSI platform firmware that sets bit 8; the documented consequence is a boot hang on affected hardware, with no reported data disclosure or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-71108
- Published
- Jan 14, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 14, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 14, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 14, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <132fe187e0d940f388f839fe2cde9b84106ad20d
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <3042a57a8e8bce4a3100c3f6f03dc372aab24943
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <30cd2cb1abf4c4acdb1ddb468c946f68939819fb
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <914605b0de8128434eafc9582445306830748b93
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <f72f97d0aee4a993a35f2496bca5efd24827235d
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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