CVE-2026-90339

What the bug is

After enabling GENERIC_ENTRY on PowerPC, syscall_enter_from_user_mode() returns -1 as a sentinel to signal that seccomp or ptrace has intercepted the syscall and already set a return value via syscall_set_return_value(). system_call_exception() was not handling this sentinel, and since -1UL is >= NR_syscalls, the code fell into the out-of-range path and returned -ENOSYS, overwriting the errno already placed in regs->gpr[3]. The naive fix of checking r0 == -1L before the NR_syscalls bounds check is ambiguous: a user legitimately calling syscall(-1) also produces r0 == -1L, and a tracer intercepting such a call would have its injected return value silently discarded. Fix this by introducing a thread flag that is set whenever syscall_set_return_value() explicitly updates the return value. In system_call_exception(), check and clear this flag before dispatching the syscall, and return the preset value directly when it is present. This ensures that an explicitly supplied return value always suppresses syscall execution, regardless of the syscall number. This handles all seccomp actions correctly: - SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO, SECCOMP_RET_TRACE (no tracer), SECCOMP_RET_USER_NOTIF: all call syscall_set_return_value(), flag is set, injected value returned. - SECCOMP_RET_TRAP, SECCOMP_RET_KILL: call syscall_rollback() and deliver a signal; flag is not set, but the process is dying so the return value is irrelevant. The fix covers both ppc32 and ppc64 with no #ifdefs.

Where it lives

The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.

arch/powerpc/include/asm/syscall.h
arch/powerpc/include/asm/thread_info.h
arch/powerpc/kernel/syscall.c

What this is

LINUX FOR POWERPC (32-BIT AND 64-BIT)MAINTAINERS section matched on arch/powerpc/ · linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org · Supported

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian builds this code. Every release below compiles the affected file into the kernels it ships.

• bookworm, trixie, forky, sidy

y

built into the kernel image on every flavour - only a patch removes it

From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published

2026-09-17 (31 days ago)source

CVSS

no vector published, unrated

Attack vector

not published

EPSS

0.22%, higher than 11.2% of all CVEssource

CISA KEV

not listedthe KEV catalogue

Debian urgency

unimportantsource

Subsystem

arch/powerpc

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

Introduced	Fixed in	Commit
7.2	7.2.6	19b54740e2e1
7.2	7.3	69cb2be898be