Medium [CVE-2026-52948] prevent integer overflow in I2C_TIMEOUT ioctl
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-52948 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Android app · Google Play
Monitor future Red Hat Linux CVEs from your phone.
Choose a whole vendor or a precise platform, then receive matching security advisories by phone notification, email, or both. Coverage follows 32 official vendor sources and 160+ reviewed platform categories.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: dev: prevent integer overflow in I2C_TIMEOUT ioctl While fuzzing with Syzkaller, a persistent `schedule_timeout: wrong timeout value` warning was observed, accompanied by SMBus controller state machine corruption.
The I2C_TIMEOUT ioctl accepts a user-provided timeout in multiples of 10 ms. The user argument is checked against INT_MAX, but it is subsequently multiplied by 10 before being passed to msecs_to_jiffies().
A malicious user can pass a large value (e.g., 429496729) that passes the `arg > INT_MAX` check but overflows when multiplied by 10. This results in a truncated 32-bit unsigned value that bypasses the internal `(int)m adapter->timeout` (a signed 32-bit int), which is reinterpreted as a negative number.
When passed to wait_for_completion_timeout(), this negative value undergoes sign extension to a 64-bit unsigned long, triggering the `schedule_timeout` warning and causing premature returns. This leaves the SMBus state machine in an unrecoverable state, constituting a local Denial of Service (DoS).
Fix this by bounding the user argument to `INT_MAX / 10`. [wsa: move the comment as well] A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) subsystem. A malicious local user can exploit an integer overflow vulnerability in the I2C_TIMEOUT ioctl.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 9 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 9 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 9 days ago·verify at source
Discussion(0)
No comments yet. Share field notes, upgrade gotchas, or questions — verify against the vendor advisory before acting on community advice.
Sign in to join the discussion.