VulnerabilityPublished 24 Sep 2026Updated 21 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-97501: Linux kernel · pinctrl: mediatek: paris: bypass pinctrl GPIO layer in set GPIO direction

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · fixed in c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:18 UTC

Severity

Unrated

Rated by Threat Radar · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 5% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a, 482ba972f9638f467df2d498b46384a1d1f80529, 428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b +1

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 24 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade Linux kernel to c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a, 482ba972f9638f467df2d498b46384a1d1f80529, 428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b or 3c4897861759fd8bd81dc2ada92121ac76332592.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 805250982bb5c5ce4a6e52e1d87204c5feea0dd1, < c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a	Fixed in c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 805250982bb5c5ce4a6e52e1d87204c5feea0dd1, < 482ba972f9638f467df2d498b46384a1d1f80529	Fixed in 482ba972f9638f467df2d498b46384a1d1f80529
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 805250982bb5c5ce4a6e52e1d87204c5feea0dd1, < 428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b	Fixed in 428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b
LinuxLinux	Affected ≥ 805250982bb5c5ce4a6e52e1d87204c5feea0dd1, < 3c4897861759fd8bd81dc2ada92121ac76332592	Fixed in 3c4897861759fd8bd81dc2ada92121ac76332592
LinuxLinux	Affected =4.20	Fixed in–

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pinctrl: mediatek: paris: bypass pinctrl GPIO layer in set GPIO direction 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.

References

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