Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-53169

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.0.13 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available 8 weeks old

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: accel/ethosu: reject NPU_OP_RESIZE commands from userspace NPU_OP_RESIZE is a U85-only command that the driver does not yet implement. The existing WARN_ON(1) placeholder fires unconditionally whenever userspace submits this command via DRM_IOCTL_ETHOSU_GEM_CREATE, causing unbounded kernel log spam. If panic_on_warn is set the kernel panics, giving any unprivileged user with access to the DRM device a trivial denial-of-service primitive. Replace the WARN_ON(1) with an explicit -EINVAL return so the ioctl rejects the command before it reaches hardware.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-617

Attacker-controllable input can reach an assertion that aborts the process when it fails, so a check meant for debugging becomes a denial-of-service in production. A single crafted request takes the service down. The fix is to handle unexpected input gracefully on reachable paths rather than asserting on it.

General guidance for the reachable assertion class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 6.19, < 7.0.13= 7.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.0.13 or later
Fixed in 7.0.13
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 7.0.13 or later (or any version > 7.1)

  1. 1. Identify the current running kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. 2. Check if the version falls within the affected range: >= 6.19 and < 7.0.13, or exactly 7.1
  3. 3. If affected, upgrade the kernel to version 7.0.13 or later, or to a version beyond 7.1 (e.g., 7.2 or later)
  4. 4. For systems that cannot immediately upgrade, apply the vendor patch from commit 70090a32f56a4589e7e860e0f9a8fbe4417df0a1 to the kernel source and rebuild
  5. 5. After upgrade/patch, reboot into the new kernel
  6. 6. Verify the fix by checking that NPU_OP_RESIZE commands are rejected with -EINVAL rather than triggering WARN_ON
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade risks apply - ensure compatibility with existing system drivers and software before deploying in production

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-53169 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-53169 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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