CVE-2026-31426: ACPI: EC: clean up handlers on probe failure in acpi_ec_setup()

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-31426 is a high (CVSS 7.0) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 13-04-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 19-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ACPI: EC: clean up handlers on probe failure in acpi_ec_setup() When ec_install_handlers() returns -EPROBE_DEFER on reduced-hardware platforms, it has already started the EC and installed the address space handler with the struct acpi_ec pointer as handler context. However, acpi_ec_setup() propagates the error without any cleanup. The caller acpi_ec_add() then frees the struct acpi_ec for non-boot instances, leaving a dangling handler context in ACPICA. Any subsequent AML evaluation that accesses an EC OpRegion field dispatches into acpi_ec_space_handler() with the freed pointer, causing a use-after-free: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mutex_lock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:289) Write of size 8 at addr ffff88800721de38 by task init/1 Call Trace: <TASK> mutex_lock (kernel/locking/mutex.c:289) acpi_ec_space_handler (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1362) acpi_ev_address_space_dispatch (drivers/acpi/acpica/evregion.c:293) acpi_ex_access_region (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfldio.c:246) acpi_ex_field_datum_io (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfldio.c:509) acpi_ex_extract_from_field (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfldio.c:700) acpi_ex_read_data_from_field (drivers/acpi/acpica/exfield.c:327) acpi_ex_resolve_node_to_value (drivers/acpi/acpica/exresolv.c:392) </TASK> Allocated by task 1: acpi_ec_alloc (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1424) acpi_ec_add (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1692) Freed by task 1: kfree (mm/slub.c:6876) acpi_ec_add (drivers/acpi/ec.c:1751) The bug triggers on reduced-hardware EC platforms (ec->gpe < 0) when the GPIO IRQ provider defers probing. Once the stale handler exists, any unprivileged sysfs read that causes AML to touch an EC OpRegion (battery, thermal, backlight) exercises the dangling pointer. Fix this by calling ec_remove_handlers() in the error path of acpi_ec_setup() before clearing first_ec. ec_remove_handlers() checks each EC_FLAGS_* bit before acting, so it is safe to call regardless of how far ec_install_handlers() progressed: -ENODEV (handler not installed): only calls acpi_ec_stop() -EPROBE_DEFER (handler installed): removes handler, stops EC

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.