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TI-2026-73926 Aliases CVE-2026-98395GHSA-c6r3-334m-j754

Soft mask corruption on replayed interrupt exit in Linux PowerPC

Priority LOW 22Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
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User interaction
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Attack complexity
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Impact type
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Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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Fix status
Fixed

No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA.

Summary

In the Linux kernel from 7.2, the powerpc interrupt exit path corrupts irq_soft_mask when a pending interrupt is replayed. The handler exit calls local_irq_disable(), which overwrites the mask and strips the PMI disable bit, so a later replay triggers a kernel WARNING. The source reports this during boot on a POWER10 pseries guest.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06

Description from the CNA

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/entry: Fix irq_soft_mask corruption on replayed interrupt exit When __replay_soft_interrupts() replays a pending interrupt (e.g. PACA_IRQ_DEC -> timer_interrupt), it calls the handler directly with a synthetic pt_regs. The DEFINE_INTERRUPT_HANDLER_ASYNC wrapper around each handler calls arch_interrupt_async_exit_prepare() on the way out, which calls arch_interrupt_exit_prepare() -> local_irq_disable() -> arch_local_irq_disable(), which does: irq_soft_mask_set(IRQS_DISABLED) /* 0x1 */ This unconditionally overwrites irq_soft_mask with IRQS_DISABLED (0x1), stripping the IRQS_PMI_DISABLED (0x2) bit. The result is that irq_soft_mask is 0x1 instead of IRQS_ALL_DISABLED (0x3) when the handler returns to __replay_soft_interrupts(). For a normally-taken interrupt this is harmless: the next interrupt always enters through arch_interrupt_enter_prepare() which unconditionally sets irq_soft_mask to IRQS_ALL_DISABLED. But during replay, next_interrupt() is called directly between replayed handlers without going back through arch_interrupt_enter_prepare(), so the stripped bit is never restored. next_interrupt() then fires a WARNING: WARNING: arch/powerpc/kernel/irq_64.c:75 WARN_ON(irq_soft_mask_return() != IRQS_ALL_DISABLED) The warning was observed early in boot on a POWER10 pseries guest during kmem_cache_init_late(), where a spinlock release triggers interrupt replay that processes a pending timer interrupt. Debugger state confirming the bug: Before timer_interrupt(&regs): irq_soft_mask = 0x3 (IRQS_ALL_DISABLED) correct irq_happened = 0x41 (HARD_DIS|REPLAYING) correct After timer_interrupt(&regs) returns: irq_soft_mask = 0x1 (IRQS_DISABLED) WRONG - PMI bit stripped irq_happened = 0x41 unchanged The fix is to replace local_irq_disable() with hard_irq_disable(). hard_irq_disable() is the right primitive here for two reasons: 1. On PPC64 (hw_irq.h:301) it calls irq_soft_mask_set_return(IRQS_ALL_DISABLED), setting the soft mask to 0x3 (both IRQS_DISABLED and IRQS_PMI_DISABLED), which preserves the PMI bit and fixes the WARNING. The additional work it does (__hard_irq_disable(), PACA_IRQ_HARD_DIS |=) is redundant but safe since both are already set at this point in the exit path; the trace_hardirqs_off() inside is guarded by if (!arch_irqs_disabled_flags(flags)) so it will not double-fire. 2. On PPC32 (hw_irq.h:467) hard_irq_disable() maps to arch_local_irq_disable() -> __hard_irq_disable(), which clears MSR[EE] in hardware. This is exactly correct: PPC32 has no soft-mask PACA mechanism, so the hardware disable is the right way to satisfy irqentry_exit()'s requirement. This also fixes a build error on PPC32 where irq_soft_mask_set() is only defined under CONFIG_PPC64: arch/powerpc/include/asm/entry-common.h:273: error: implicit declaration of function 'irq_soft_mask_set' Using hard_irq_disable() requires no #ifdef and is consistent with how the rest of the entry code (e.g. entry-common.h:463) handles the same PPC32/PPC64 split.

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00189 8th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed Linux (Linux): 7.2.7, 7.3

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux7.2 and later7.2.7, 7.3Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 7.2 and later Fixed in 7.2.7, 7.3 Patch available CNA

CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1

Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*——Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions — — ·Linux

Remediation

Update the Linux kernel to 7.2.7 or 7.3, which contain the fix.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-06

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 7.2.7, 7.3

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

Not affected: 7 products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-14 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-98395
  2. 2026-10-14 Alias added: GHSA-c6r3-334m-j754
  3. 2026-10-16 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
  4. 2026-10-16 CVSS score added · Red Hat
  5. 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
  6. 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2021-02452 Incorrect authorization in Ubuntu linux kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
See all 21741 →

Sources