What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-80677: driver core: use READ_ONCE() for dev->driver in dev_has_sync_state()

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-08-28 · updated 2026-10-16

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: driver core: use READ_ONCE() for dev->driver in dev_has_sync_state() dev_has_sync_state() reads dev->driver twice without holding device_lock() -- once for the NULL check and once to dereference ->sync_state. Some callers only hold device_links_write_lock, which doesn't prevent a concurrent unbind from clearing dev->driver via device_unbind_cleanup(). Fix it by reading dev->driver exactly once with READ_ONCE(), pairing with the WRITE_ONCE() in device_set_driver().

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 5.5.13 before 5.6; 5.6 — fixed in 5.6, 7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.6, 7.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/358697929351f619143f59c6a8a15a4994748b79
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/51b3e1de53ee5b7775c7ff90e67fdb2665fce938
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5e79e0180515b31b2e2244dc3d256fd8b5a07021
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/860885fcd2611bca8c28dac8b2c1c7ff160f763e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/89789e4c141904506163dcb91c7289a074573931
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b0f4082a09760939588135d60a8e9cc994bfa3e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc77f0d91e3214e4292208f02a1dc09a31f9aac7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e9506871a8ea304cde48ff4a57226df2aadddae3

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