Executive brief
The Linux kernel's PlayStation joystick driver (psxpad-spi) fails to initialize driver data during device probe, causing a null pointer dereference when the system suspends. This results in a kernel crash and denial of service affecting any system with a connected PlayStation gamepad.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a null pointer dereference in the psxpad-spi input driver. The probe function allocates and initializes a controller state structure (pad) but fails to call spi_set_drvdata() to store it in the SPI device structure. When the system suspends, the psxpad_spi_suspend() function calls spi_get_drvdata() expecting to retrieve the controller state, but obtains a NULL pointer instead, leading to a kernel panic. The fix is minimal: add a single spi_set_drvdata(spi, pad) call in the probe function before pm_runtime_enable(). This is a straightforward initialization bug affecting systems with PlayStation gamepads connected via SPI.
Affected products
- Linux kernel multiple versions with the psxpad-spi driver
Timeline
- 2026-09-03: disclosed: Published to NVD
- 2026-07-24: patched: Fix committed by Linmao Li