Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2026-46108: Linux Kernel IPMI driver state machine stall in ipmi_si

CVE-2026-46108 · Severity: info · Published 2026-05-28

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) driver could cause the system management interface to hang or become unresponsive. This occurs when the system fails to allocate memory for a message but does not reset its internal state, potentially preventing further hardware management communications. While primarily affecting system stability and management, it could impact the ability to monitor or recover servers remotely.

Technical details

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's IPMI System Interface (SI) driver (drivers/char/ipmi/ipmi_si_intf.c). When the driver attempts to handle available messages or events, it calls alloc_msg_handle_irq(). If this allocation fails (e.g., due to memory pressure), the driver previously returned immediately without resetting smi_info->si_state. This leaves the state machine in an inconsistent state where no new operations are initiated, effectively stalling the interface. The fix ensures the state is returned to SI_NORMAL upon allocation failure. This is a local availability issue triggered by resource exhaustion.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel 2.6.12-rc2 and later

Timeline

  • 2026-04-20: disclosed: Initial patch by Corey Minyard
  • 2026-05-28: advisory: CVE-2026-46108 published in NVD

References