Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2026-80817

None

CVSS

—

EPSS

0.2%

Published

Sep 4, 2026

CISA due date

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Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A timing problem in the Linux kernel can let a local user crash the entire computer.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Local User
Complexity
Moderate
Impact
Denial Of Service
Component
OS kernel
Class
Race Condition
Remediation
Upgrade
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

Race condition allows iommufd_ioas_change_process to observe an IOAS area with a NULL pages pointer during concurrent iopt_map_file_pages execution, resulting in a kernel NULL pointer dereference.

Why it matters to the business

Systems using the Linux kernel's IOMMU subsystem may experience unexpected crashes and service interruptions; low exploitation likelihood reduces immediate urgency but still requires patching on affected kernels.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker with local access triggers concurrent IOMMU file mapping and IOAS change operations to enter the brief window where an area structure lacks a populated pages pointer, causing the kernel to dereference NULL and panic.

How to fix it

Upgrade to a Linux kernel version containing the fix for the race condition in iommufd/ioas.c; rebuild and reboot affected hosts.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the kernel source no longer contains the two-phase area insertion logic without pages population under iova_rwsem; test with concurrent IOMMU workloads for absence of the reported oops.

Typical attack path

  1. Obtain local unprivileged access on a Linux system with iommufd enabled
  2. Open IOMMU file descriptors and prepare IOAS areas
  3. Race iopt_map_file_pages with iommufd_ioas_change_process using multiple threads
  4. Trigger the NULL dereference to crash the kernel

How to detect it

Search kernel logs for NULL pointer dereference oops with stack traces containing iommufd_ioas_change_process and iommufd_fops_ioctl; correlate with processes performing IOMMU ioctls.

What your security team should do

  • Prioritize kernel updates on any systems exposing IOMMU interfaces to untrusted users
  • Monitor for kernel oops reports referencing iommufd_ioas_change_process
  • Restrict unprivileged access to /dev/iommu until patched

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/iommufd: Fix NULL pointer deref in iommufd_ioas_change_process when racing with iopt_map_file_pages iommufd_ioas_change_process() iterates every IOAS area while only holding every IOAS iova_rwsem, so it assumes every area has a non-NULL pages pointer. That assumption can be false when it runs concurrently with iopt_map_file_pages(). iopt_map_pages() executes in two phases. It first creates the area and inserts it into the interval tree under iova_rwsem, with area->pages still NULL. It then drops iova_rwsem and later fills area->pages under domains_rwsem. This leaves a window between area creation and area->pages fill where a concurrent iommufd_ioas_change_process() can observe the area and dereference a NULL area->pages pointer, leading to a NULL pointer dereference: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000c0 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 4b655067 P4D 4b655067 PUD 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 11841 Comm: syz.1.628 Not tainted 7.1.0 #3 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:iommufd_ioas_change_process+0x419/0xd50 drivers/iommu/iommufd/ioas.c:538 Code: 48 89 c3 48 85 c0 0f 84 cc 00 00 00 e8 10 f5 cb fd 48 8d 7b 68 e8 a7 b5 eb fd 48 8b 6b 68 48 8d bd c0 00 00 00 e8 17 b2 eb fd <8b> ad c0 00 00 00 bf 01 00 00 00 89 ee e8 85 ef cb fd 83 fd 01 74 RSP: 0018:ffffc90015c17d28 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: ffff8880186d5328 RBX: ffff88801d25e240 RCX: 0000000080000000 RDX: 00000000000002d7 RSI: ffffffff83ba9e10 RDI: 00000000000000c0 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffffff8e781eb8 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 00000000000000c0 R11: ffffffff83ba9e29 R12: ffff88802e216008 R13: ffff88802e216000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 00007f4aea3f66c0(0000) GS:ffff8880b1fa1000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00000000000000c0 CR3: 000000004b75c000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> iommufd_fops_ioctl+0x287/0x400 drivers/iommu/iommufd/main.c:533 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x120/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:583 x64_sys_call+0x1092/0x1fb0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:17 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x10a/0x680 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f4aec1a82bd Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b0 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007f4aea3f6018 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f4aec436090 RCX: 00007f4aec1a82bd RDX: 0000200000000180 RSI: 0000000000003b92 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007f4aec250295 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007f4aec436128 R14: 00007f4aec436090 R15: 00007ffd04ef23e0 </TASK> Modules linked in: CR2: 00000000000000c0 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- RIP: 0010:iommufd_ioas_change_process+0x419/0xd50 drivers/iommu/iommufd/ioas.c:538 Code: 48 89 c3 48 85 c0 0f 84 cc 00 00 00 e8 10 f5 cb fd 48 8d 7b 68 e8 a7 b5 eb fd 48 8b 6b 68 48 8d bd c0 00 00 00 e8 17 b2 eb fd <8b> ad c0 00 00 00 bf 01 00 00 00 89 ee e8 85 ef cb fd 83 fd 01 74 RSP: 0018:ffffc90015c17d28 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: ffff8880186d5328 RBX: ffff88801d25e240 RCX: 0000000080000000 RDX: 00000000000002d7 RSI: ffffffff83ba9e10 RDI: 00000000000000c0 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffffff8e781eb8 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 00000000000000c0 R11: ffffffff83ba9e29 R12: ffff88802e216008 R13: ffff88802e216000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 00007f4aea3f66c0(000 ---truncated---

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed