CVE-2026-23071: 
Linux Kernel vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2026-23071 is a race condition vulnerability in the Linux kernel's regmap hwspinlock irqsave routine, classified under CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization). The flaw was published on February 4, 2026, and affects Linux kernel versions from 4.15 up through multiple stable branches, with fixed versions including 5.10.249, 5.15.199, 6.1.162, 6.6.122, 6.12.68, and 6.18.8, as well as 6.19-rc7. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.7 (Medium), reflecting a local, high-complexity attack requiring low privileges (Feedly).

The root cause is improper synchronization (CWE-362) in the regmap subsystem's hwspinlock irqsave path. Specifically, the address of the shared struct member &map->spinlock_flags was passed directly to hwspin_lock_timeout_irqsave, meaning multiple kernel contexts contending for the same hardware spinlock could simultaneously overwrite this shared variable, corrupting the IRQ state for the current lock owner. The fix replaces the shared member reference with a local stack variable flags to isolate each caller's interrupt state, preventing cross-context corruption. Patch commits are available across multiple stable kernel branches at git.kernel.org (Feedly, Kernel Patch).

Exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to kernel synchronization state corruption, resulting in improper interrupt handling, kernel panics, or system crashes — effectively a denial of service. The impact is limited to availability (no confidentiality or integrity impact per CVSS), affecting systems where multiple threads or processes concurrently contend for the same hardware spinlock via the regmap subsystem. Embedded and SoC-based Linux systems that rely on hardware spinlocks (hwspinlock) for inter-processor synchronization are most at risk (Feedly).

There is no public proof-of-concept exploit and no evidence of in-the-wild exploitation as of the time of this report. The vulnerability requires local access with low privileges but high attack complexity, limiting its practical exploitability. The EPSS score is approximately 0.018% (0.000180), indicating a very low probability of exploitation in the near term. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog (Feedly).

Update the Linux kernel to a patched stable version: 5.10.249 or later, 5.15.199 or later, 6.1.162 or later, 6.6.122 or later, 6.12.68 or later, or 6.18.8 or later, depending on the currently deployed branch. Upstream patch commits are available at git.kernel.org for all affected stable branches. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict local user access on systems using regmap hwspinlock functionality and monitor kernel logs for signs of lock contention or unexpected panics. Distribution-specific updates have been issued by Ubuntu (USN-8162-1, USN-8180-x series, USN-8186-1, USN-8188-1, USN-8275-1, USN-8278-x, USN-8289-x, USN-8296-x, USN-8297-1), SUSE, Oracle Linux, and Amazon Linux (Feedly, Ubuntu USN-8180, Amazon Linux).

The vulnerability has received routine coverage from Linux distribution security teams, with patch advisories issued by Ubuntu, SUSE, Oracle Linux, and Amazon Linux. No notable independent researcher commentary or significant social media discussion has been identified beyond standard vulnerability tracking and scanner detection updates from Tenable (Nessus) and Qualys (Feedly).