Executive brief
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Tegra I2C driver can cause hardware components to remain powered on indefinitely. This occurs because the system fails to release a power management reference when a specific internal lock fails. While this does not directly expose data, it can lead to increased power consumption and prevent the device from entering a low-power sleep state, potentially impacting battery life or thermal management.
Technical details
A resource management flaw exists in drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-tegra.c within the Linux kernel. The function tegra_i2c_xfer() calls pm_runtime_get_sync() to increment the power management reference count but fails to call pm_runtime_put() if a subsequent call to tegra_i2c_mutex_lock() fails. This results in a reference leak, preventing the I2C controller from entering runtime suspend. An attacker with local access could potentially trigger this condition to cause a minor denial of service via power exhaustion or by preventing proper hardware state transitions. The issue is resolved in kernel versions 7.0.11 and 7.1.
Affected products
- Linux Linux 7.0 to 7.0.11
Timeline
- 2026-05-07: other: Patch submitted by developer
- 2026-07-19: advisory: NVD publication date