CVE-2026-72141
NVD analysis in progress
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: imx: fix locked bus on SMBus block-read of 0 (IRQ) SMBus 3.1 6.5.7 allows a Block Read byte count of 0, but the interrupt-driven block-read state machine rejects it as -EPROTO. Worse, it returns without a NACK+STOP: the next receive cycle has already started, so the target keeps holding SDA and the bus stays stuck until a power cycle of this i2c controller. Accept count=0: NACK the in-flight dummy byte (TXAK) and set msg->len to 2 so i2c_imx_isr_read_continue() emits STOP via its normal last-byte path. The dummy byte is discarded; block-read callers only consume buf[0..count-1]. Reading I2DR has likewise already armed the next byte on the count > I2C_SMBUS_BLOCK_MAX error path, so NACK it (TXAK) before aborting with -EPROTO; otherwise the failing transfer's STOP cannot complete and the bus stays held. The atomic path regressed earlier (v3.16) and is fixed separately; this patch covers only the v6.13 state-machine rework.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network, without authentication and with no action from the victim.
- Impact
- An attacker can take the service offline.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle. Start with the instances exposed to the internet.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.