Kernel crash via ibmpex sysfs teardown race
Published May 27, 2026 · Updated May 27, 2026
A race condition in the Linux kernel ibmpex hwmon driver allows local users to crash the kernel through a concurrent sysfs sensor read. During device removal, teardown clears driver data before removing sensor attributes, while ibmpex_show_sensor() dereferences the cleared pointer without a NULL check. Exploitation requires the ibmpex driver and a sensor-file read to overlap device teardown, resulting in a local service interrupt.
Summary
What happened
A race condition in the Linux kernel ibmpex hwmon driver allows local users to crash the kernel through a concurrent sysfs sensor read. During device removal, teardown clears driver data before removing sensor attributes, while ibmpex_show_sensor() dereferences the cleared pointer without a NULL check. Exploitation requires the ibmpex driver and a sensor-file read to overlap device teardown, resulting in a local service interrupt.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-45914
- Published
- May 27, 2026
- Updated
- May 27, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 27, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 27, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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- Affected versionversion=3ce9b7ae9d4d148672b35147aaf7987a4f82bb94 <05112ba67c824ab416cd54307c0b50aba9f0047a
- Affected versionversion=5.10.248 <5.10.252
- Affected versionversion=533ead425f8109b02fecc7e72d612b8898ec347a <efd68429f23fb4015b0ebc2392334059e06fad18
- Affected versionversion=5aa2139201667c1f644601e4529c4acd6bf8db5a <14a38784e09aebc21207dc32fffa05247fc3dd64
- Affected versionversion=6.1.160 <6.1.165
- Affected versionversion=6.12.64 <6.12.75
- Affected versionversion=6.18.3 <6.18.14
- Affected versionversion=6.19
- Affected versionversion=6.6.120 <6.6.128
- Affected versionversion=68d62e5bebbd118b763e8bb210d5cf2198ef450c <914b47c9b824d3d74f31c764163edf93302100b1
- Affected versionversion=6946c726c3f4c36f0f049e6f97e88c510b15f65d <894d9c7aab68fd0c70c78b1d03c8fa589fb0f67d
- Affected versionversion=6946c726c3f4c36f0f049e6f97e88c510b15f65d <8bde3e395a85017f12af2b0ba5c3684f5af9c006
- Affected versionversion=fa37adcf1d564ef58b9dfb01b6c36d35c5294bad <f448acd86835a650f9ea83460b9ca347d3aafba5
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
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