Boot crash via unaligned KASAN shadow load
Published Jul 1, 2026 · Updated Jul 1, 2026
Availability flaw in the Linux kernel causes affected ARMv5 systems to crash during boot through an unaligned KASAN shadow-memory load. The ARM __switch_to() path uses the word-load instruction ldr on a byte-granular KASAN VMAP stack shadow address that is not guaranteed to be word aligned. The failure requires CONFIG_KASAN_VMALLOC and CONFIG_VMAP_STACK on an ARMv5 system; the resulting alignment exception occurs before init starts.
Summary
What happened
Availability flaw in the Linux kernel causes affected ARMv5 systems to crash during boot through an unaligned KASAN shadow-memory load. The ARM __switch_to() path uses the word-load instruction ldr on a byte-granular KASAN VMAP stack shadow address that is not guaranteed to be word aligned. The failure requires CONFIG_KASAN_VMALLOC and CONFIG_VMAP_STACK on an ARMv5 system; the resulting alignment exception occurs before init starts.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-53343
- Published
- Jul 1, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 1, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux Kernel
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 1, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 1, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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- Affected versionversion=44e9a3bb76e5f2eecd374c8176b2c5163c8bb2e2 <2a4dc9a0ac3326e79fb58fdaae724b92127709a9
- Affected versionversion=44e9a3bb76e5f2eecd374c8176b2c5163c8bb2e2 <517720913bd3c17a52cd55a740064f68455ab88e
- Affected versionversion=44e9a3bb76e5f2eecd374c8176b2c5163c8bb2e2 <77a1f6883dc6e837bb2cb30b9b02e2f94338e2c6
- Affected versionversion=6.1.120 <6.1.176
- Affected versionversion=6.12.4 <6.12.94
- Affected versionversion=6.13
- Affected versionversion=6.6.64 <6.6.143
- Affected versionversion=8fe148d39c127de3fb78dfa6da95a3608dfda454 <c0b8c148a7754826156993ed6442d31536ec86b4
- Affected versionversion=c86d26b4b089ca294b3b7d915a7da61edb77935f <c74990828d3c486ee44aaa68240eb3abff289d1c
- Affected versionversion=ef21187c0672a2b2cbec44f33bab9ec47d5c277c <c2e3aadc8fef7da068490597fc5582f8f362aeb2
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
Your stack
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Your stack
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