CVE-2026-97480 is a vulnerability in Linux Kernel
Published on September 24, 2026
tty: serial: 8250: protect against NULL uart->port.dev in register
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tty: serial: 8250: protect against NULL uart->port.dev in register
serial8250_register_8250_port() conditionally copies uart->port.dev
from up->port.dev only when up->port.dev is non-NULL:
if (up->port.dev) {
uart->port.dev = up->port.dev;
...
}
So if both the existing uart slot and up have a NULL ->dev,
uart->port.dev remains NULL. The very next ACPI companion check
then dereferences it unconditionally:
if (!has_acpi_companion(uart->port.dev)) {
has_acpi_companion() reads dev->fwnode without a NULL guard
(include/linux/acpi.h), so this NULL-derefs the kernel for the
remaining no-dev case rather than just skipping the
mctrl_gpio_init() initialisation as intended.
smatch flags the inconsistency:
drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_core.c:767
serial8250_register_8250_port() error: 'uart->port.dev' could be
null (see line 719)
Guard the call with a NULL check so register continues to work
for callers that legitimately have no parent device (legacy
non-OF/non-ACPI registrations).
No functional change for callers that pass a non-NULL ->dev.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-97480
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Affected Versions
Linux:- Version 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and below 5cbab666721d974bfe033a12045d808936deaefd is affected.
- Version 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and below 941c9f84c9b6310f7aaa1c8c785dcc634ee33050 is affected.
- Before 6.18.53 is affected.
- Version 6.18.53, <= 6.18.* is unaffected.
- Version 7.2, <= * is unaffected.