Boot-time kernel panic via stale ACPI region
Published Mar 25, 2026 · Updated Mar 25, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel i801 I2C driver allows local users to trigger a kernel panic during system boot. Concurrent udev probes can deregister the ACPI I/O region between the i801_acpi_io_handler check and i2c_lock_bus, which dereferences missing lock_ops. Reachability requires multiple udev workers to race while collecting i801 device information; the resulting null dereference halts the booting system.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel i801 I2C driver allows local users to trigger a kernel panic during system boot. Concurrent udev probes can deregister the ACPI I/O region between the i801_acpi_io_handler check and i2c_lock_bus, which dereferences missing lock_ops. Reachability requires multiple udev workers to race while collecting i801 device information; the resulting null dereference halts the booting system.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-23369
- Published
- Mar 25, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 25, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 25, 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?
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- Affected versionversion=6.7
- Affected versionversion=f707d6b9e7c18f669adfdb443906d46cfbaaa0c1 <1c72e7b0b442ce21a1348d9b8237cfddb67048eb
- Affected versionversion=f707d6b9e7c18f669adfdb443906d46cfbaaa0c1 <9507f9953a2a5647eb42668d0c243fdbd7e72954
- Affected versionversion=f707d6b9e7c18f669adfdb443906d46cfbaaa0c1 <c726273044a5a8308a889d19d6884135c0f3321d
- Affected versionversion=f707d6b9e7c18f669adfdb443906d46cfbaaa0c1 <cfc69c2e6c699c96949f7b0455195b0bfb7dc715
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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