Bug 2492264 (CVE-2026-53116)

Summary: CVE-2026-53116 kernel: s390/ap: use generic driver_override infrastructure
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's s390/ap driver. A race condition occurs when AP masks are updated, leading to `__ap_revise_reserved()` accessing the `driver_override` field without proper locking. This can result in a Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability, where memory is accessed after it has been freed. An attacker could potentially exploit this to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-24 18:01:54 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

s390/ap: use generic driver_override infrastructure

When the AP masks are updated via apmask_store() or aqmask_store(),
ap_bus_revise_bindings() is called after ap_attr_mutex has been
released.

This calls __ap_revise_reserved(), which accesses the driver_override
field without holding any lock, racing against a concurrent
driver_override_store() that may free the old string, resulting in a
potential UAF.

Fix this by using the driver-core driver_override infrastructure, which
protects all accesses with an internal spinlock.

Note that unlike most other buses, the AP bus does not check
driver_override in its match() callback; the override is checked in
ap_device_probe() and __ap_revise_reserved() instead.

Also note that we do not enable the driver_override feature of struct
bus_type, as AP - in contrast to most other buses - passes "" to
sysfs_emit() when the driver_override pointer is NULL. Thus, printing
"\n" instead of "(null)\n".

Additionally, AP has a custom counter that is modified in the
corresponding custom driver_override_store().

Comment 1 Mauro Matteo Cascella 2026-06-25 12:53:58 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026062415-CVE-2026-53116-2a2a@gregkh/T