Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-98749 in the interactive tracker
CVE-2026-98749
tty: serial: max3100: shut down timer before freeing port
Published 2026-10-18 (today) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem drivers/tty. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
Debian does not build this code. The per-release build detail is under "Where it lives" below.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-98749 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | vulnerable | 6.1.190-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series bookworm tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for bookworm have historically landed a median of 23 days after publication. |
| Debian 13trixie | fixed | 6.12.113-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.12.113-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.2.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.2.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
max3100_shutdown() stops the polling timer but returns early during system suspend. If the SPI device is unbound before resume, the serial core does not call max3100_shutdown() again, so max3100_remove() frees the port while the timer remains armed. max3100_timeout() may then access the freed port and re-arm the timer. Add final timer teardown to max3100_remove() and use timer_shutdown_sync() to prevent a racing callback from re-arming it. Also free the IRQ and destroy the workqueue there before freeing the port. Keep timer_delete_sync() in max3100_shutdown() so that a subsequent open() can re-arm the timer. The workqueue is created before request_irq() and destroyed on both request_irq() failure and normal shutdown. Its presence at remove thus identifies the IRQ left registered when suspend bypasses shutdown. Free the IRQ before destroying the workqueue, in both max3100_shutdown() and max3100_remove(), and cancel the pending work in between. free_irq() waits for a running interrupt handler to finish and no new handler can start afterwards, so a racing handler cannot queue work on a workqueue that is being destroyed; the force_end_work check in max3100_dowork() only narrows that window, as a handler delayed between the check and queue_work() could still run after the teardown has cleared the workqueue pointer. Cancelling the work also keeps destroy_workqueue() from waiting on a queued work item in case remove() ever runs while the freezable workqueue is still frozen, e.g. device removal during the resume window, before workqueues are thawed. This issue was found by an in-house static analysis tool.
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/tty/serial/max3100.c
- What this is
- TTY LAYER AND SERIAL DRIVERSMAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/tty/ · linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org · Supported
- Kernel module
- none to look for. The file would have gone into max3100, and Debian does not compile it into that module, so finding max3100 in lsmod would say nothing about this CVE.
Check it on the machine
grep -w CONFIG_SERIAL_MAX3100 /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 4 releases below, every kernel flavour Debian publishes has the switch off, so the vulnerable file is compiled into no kernel binary Debian ships.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sidn
- n
- not enabled on any flavour - this release does not build the code
- Build switch
- CONFIG_SERIAL_MAX3100
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
- 2026-10-18 (today)source
- CVSS
- no vector published, unrated
- Attack vector
- not published
- EPSS
- not scored
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- drivers/tty
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 2.6.30 | 6.12.113 | fb668620e3b1 |
| 2.6.30 | 6.18.56 | 2c8614981d3e |
| 2.6.30 | 7.2.10 | 247b8f680876 |
| 2.6.30 | 7.3 | db0949bbd06d |
Why the CNA scored it this way
The kernel CNA published no CVSS vector and no reasoning for CVE-2026-98749, which is why it is shown as unrated rather than given an invented score. 6,405 of the 20,413 CVEs here carry reasoning; this is not one of them.