Removal hang via retained shared hwmon device
Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 17, 2026
A removal hang in Linux thermal hwmon allows local users to block thermal-zone teardown by unbinding the ACPI thermal driver. In drivers/thermal/thermal_hwmon.c, thermal_remove_hwmon_sysfs() retains the shared hwmon device when another same-type zone still has an attribute beneath it, preventing its parent zone from completing removal. The trigger requires multiple same-type thermal zones and access to remove the parent zone; the documented consequence is stalled teardown, not a system crash or data disclosure.
Summary
What happened
A removal hang in Linux thermal hwmon allows local users to block thermal-zone teardown by unbinding the ACPI thermal driver. In drivers/thermal/thermal_hwmon.c, thermal_remove_hwmon_sysfs() retains the shared hwmon device when another same-type zone still has an attribute beneath it, preventing its parent zone from completing removal. The trigger requires multiple same-type thermal zones and access to remove the parent zone; the documented consequence is stalled teardown, not a system crash or data disclosure.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-90311
- Published
- Sep 17, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 17, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 17, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 17, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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- Affected versionversion=4.19
- Affected versionversion=f6b6b52ef7a54160c0a4d2b56a58f84a2e5b33c5 <2b57e24d34b2dfc43c81942bb359d6315bf302fb
- Affected versionversion=f6b6b52ef7a54160c0a4d2b56a58f84a2e5b33c5 <4fa8915f40f744c6db2a3c25b2ae7d2dd64c77b4
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Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
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