In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

spi: imx: fix slab corruption from undersized DMA bounce buffers

Since commit faa8e404ad8e ("spi: imx: support dynamic burst length for
ECSPI DMA mode"), the driver allocates its private DMA TX/RX buffers
with kzalloc(dma_len), where dma_len is only rounded up to 4 bytes, but
maps, syncs and unmaps them with DMA_CACHE_ALIGNED_LEN(dma_len), i.e.
rounded up to the cache line size. As a result, the DMA API operates on
memory beyond the end of the allocation.

This was observed on a custom i.MX8MP platform with an mcp251xfd CAN
controller under heavy RPMSG load, as a series of refcount_t warnings
triggered from rpmsg_recv_done() in virtio_rpmsg_bus:

refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.
refcount_t: saturated; leaking memory.

Leading finally to an "Unable to handle kernel paging request" oops.
Reproducing this problem took between 30 minutes and roughly 30 hours
under the same workload.

Hardware watchpoints on the refcount of a struct rpmsg_endpoint showed
it was overwritten from 2 to 1 by __pi_memcpy_generic() in the
irq/155-spi2.0 thread. Additionally it was found that a "normal"
rpmsg_recv_done() took 11µs +/-2µs from its kref_get to kref_put. In
the error case the same sequence took about 215µs +/-10µs. Based on
this, an LLM was used to identify the size mismatch fixed here.

Allocate the buffers with DMA_CACHE_ALIGNED_LEN(dma_len) so they cover
the full mapped length, and use the same length for
dma_sync_single_for_cpu() to stay consistent with map and unmap.

With this patch applied, the same workload ran for more than 200 hours
without the problem reproducing.

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Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-122
CWE-416

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: spi: imx: fix slab corruption from undersized DMA bounce buffers Since commit faa8e404ad8e ("spi: imx: support dynamic burst length for ECSPI DMA mode"), the driver allocates its private DMA TX/RX buffers with kzalloc(dma_len), where dma_len is only rounded up to 4 bytes, but maps, syncs and unmaps them with DMA_CACHE_ALIGNED_LEN(dma_len), i.e. rounded up to the cache line size. As a result, the DMA API operates on memory beyond the end of the allocation. This was observed on a custom i.MX8MP platform with an mcp251xfd CAN controller under heavy RPMSG load, as a series of refcount_t warnings triggered from rpmsg_recv_done() in virtio_rpmsg_bus: refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. refcount_t: saturated; leaking memory. Leading finally to an "Unable to handle kernel paging request" oops. Reproducing this problem took between 30 minutes and roughly 30 hours under the same workload. Hardware watchpoints on the refcount of a struct rpmsg_endpoint showed it was overwritten from 2 to 1 by __pi_memcpy_generic() in the irq/155-spi2.0 thread. Additionally it was found that a "normal" rpmsg_recv_done() took 11µs +/-2µs from its kref_get to kref_put. In the error case the same sequence took about 215µs +/-10µs. Based on this, an LLM was used to identify the size mismatch fixed here. Allocate the buffers with DMA_CACHE_ALIGNED_LEN(dma_len) so they cover the full mapped length, and use the same length for dma_sync_single_for_cpu() to stay consistent with map and unmap. With this patch applied, the same workload ran for more than 200 hours without the problem reproducing.
Title spi: imx: fix slab corruption from undersized DMA bounce buffers
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-28T10:35:16.694Z

Reserved: 2026-09-25T10:25:14.398Z

Link: CVE-2026-99164

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-28T11:17:36.760

Modified: 2026-10-28T11:17:36.760

Link: CVE-2026-99164

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-10-28T12:45:16Z

Weaknesses