CVE-2026-23186 | hwmon: (acpi_power_meter) Fix deadlocks related to acpi_power_meter_notify()

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwmon: (acpi_power_meter) Fix deadlocks related to acpi_power_meter_notify() The acpi_power_meter driver's .notify() callback function, acpi_power_meter_notify(), calls hwmon_device_unregister() under a lock that is also acquired by callbacks in sysfs attributes of the device being unregistered which is prone to deadlocks between sysfs access and device removal. Address this by moving the hwmon device removal in acpi_power_meter_notify() outside the lock in question, but notice that doing it alone is not sufficient because two concurrent METER_NOTIFY_CONFIG notifications may be attempting to remove the same device at the same time. To prevent that from happening, add a new lock serializing the execution of the switch () statement in acpi_power_meter_notify(). For simplicity, it is a static mutex which should not be a problem from the performance perspective. The new lock also allows the hwmon_device_register_with_info() in acpi_power_meter_notify() to be called outside the inner lock because it prevents the other notifications handled by that function from manipulating the "resource" object while the hwmon device based on it is being registered. The sending of ACPI netlink messages from acpi_power_meter_notify() is serialized by the new lock too which generally helps to ensure that the order of handling firmware notifications is the same as the order of sending netlink messages related to them. In addition, notice that hwmon_device_register_with_info() may fail in which case resource->hwmon_dev will become an error pointer, so add checks to avoid attempting to unregister the hwmon device pointer to by it in that case to acpi_power_meter_notify() and acpi_power_meter_remove().

Published: 2026-02-14 Last update: 2026-03-18 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-23186 is rated Low Risk (23.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-23186

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-02-15 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-23186

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-23186

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-23186

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2026-23186 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-23186
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23186
suse medium CVE-2026-23186 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 224 product×package rows across 40 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, … (40 product lines)): Known Not Affected 224. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-23186/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-23186 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1256 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 871, ignored 165, not-affected 119, released 83, needed 18. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-23186

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-23186

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.15, < 6.18.10 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-23186

cvelogic Threat Intelligence