CVE-2026-97501

What the bug is

pinctrl_gpio_direction_input() / pinctrl_gpio_direction_output() take the pinctrl mutex. This causes a gpiochip operations to need to sleep. Worse yet, the .can_sleep field in the gpiochip is not set. This causes the shared GPIO proxy to trip over, as it uses gpiod_cansleep() to check whether it can use a spinlock or needs a mutex. In this case, it ends up taking a spinlock, then calls pinctrl_gpio_direction_output(), which takes a mutex. This causes a huge warning. While this class of Mediatek hardware does not have separate clear/set registers, the pinctrl context has a spinlock that is taken whenever a register read-modify-write is done. Also, once the GPIO function is selected / muxed in, further GPIO operations do not involve pinctrl operations or state. The GPIO direction and level values do not require toggling the pinmux or any other pin config options. Switch to directly calling mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction() in the GPIO set direction callbacks to avoid taking the pinctrl mutex. Drop the .gpio_set_direction field in mtk_pmxops to signal we are no longer using the pinctrl GPIO layer for setting the direction.

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.

drivers/pinctrl/mediatek/pinctrl-paris.c

What this is

PIN CONTROLLER - MEDIATEKMAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/pinctrl/mediatek/ · linux-mediatek@lists.infradead.org · Maintained

Check it on the machine

grep -wE 'CONFIG_PINCTRL|CONFIG_PINCTRL_MTK_PARIS' /boot/config-$(uname -r)

Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian does not build this code in 1 release. It does build it in 3 releases, so the answer depends on which release the machine runs.

• bookwormn
• trixieYnot built on amd64/amd64, amd64/cloud-amd64, amd64/rt/amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64, armel/rpi, armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, armhf/rt/armmp, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k, riscv64/riscv64, s390x/s390x
• forky, sidYnot built on amd64/amd64, amd64/cloud-amd64, amd64/rt-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64, armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, loong64/loong64, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k, riscv64/riscv64, s390x/s390x

n

not enabled on any flavour - this release does not build the code

Y

built in where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it

Build switches

CONFIG_PINCTRL, CONFIG_PINCTRL_MTK_PARIS

Reads as

all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.

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 kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published

2026-09-24 (24 days ago)source

CVSS

no vector published, unrated

Attack vector

not published

EPSS

0.15%, higher than 4.1% of all CVEssource

CISA KEV

not listedthe KEV catalogue

Debian urgency

not yet assignedsource

Subsystem

drivers/pinctrl

Upstream fixes

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

Introduced	Fixed in	Commit
4.20	6.18.53	428b031dad39
4.20	7.2	c87c9046c4e0