Silent NPU response corruption via stale DMA cache
Published Aug 10, 2026 · Updated Aug 10, 2026
Incorrect DMA synchronization in the Linux kernel 6.16 allows stale Airoha NPU response data to be consumed on affected hardware. airoha_npu_send_msg() maps bidirectional mailbox traffic as DMA_TO_DEVICE, so unmapping does not invalidate CPU cache lines containing NPU-written responses. The timing-sensitive condition is limited to non-cache-coherent hardware such as EN7581; affected callers can silently consume stale WLAN or PPE data, but attackers cannot reliably invoke or influence the condition.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect DMA synchronization in the Linux kernel 6.16 allows stale Airoha NPU response data to be consumed on affected hardware. airoha_npu_send_msg() maps bidirectional mailbox traffic as DMA_TO_DEVICE, so unmapping does not invalidate CPU cache lines containing NPU-written responses. The timing-sensitive condition is limited to non-cache-coherent hardware such as EN7581; affected callers can silently consume stale WLAN or PPE data, but attackers cannot reliably invoke or influence the condition.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-68330
- Published
- Aug 10, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 10, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 10, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 10, 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=6.16
- Affected versionversion=c52918744ee1e49cea86622a2633b9782446428f <4c4d866a64f36718cbcdf20add372a599dd44311
- Affected versionversion=c52918744ee1e49cea86622a2633b9782446428f <6f884eb87a79e0c482baef2ad96c96b81d024235
- Affected versionversion=c52918744ee1e49cea86622a2633b9782446428f <76fc5604308a109bf5838c2a0a0eb3ac6819f1ea
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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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