CVE-2026-53164 | iommu/dma: Do not try to iommu_map a 0 length region in swiotlb

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/dma: Do not try to iommu_map a 0 length region in swiotlb iommu_dma_iova_link_swiotlb() processes a mapping that is unaligned in three parts, the head, middle and trailer. If the middle is empty because there are no aligned pages it will call down to iommu_map() with a 0 size which the iommupt implementation will fail as illegal. It then tries to do an error unwind and starts from the wrong spot corrupting the mapping so the eventual destruction triggers a WARN_ON. Check for 0 length and avoid mapping and use offset not 0 as the starting point to unlink. This is frequently triggered by using some kinds of thunderbolt NVMe drives that trigger forced SWIOTLB for unaligned memory. NVMe seems to pass in oddly aligned buffers for the passthrough commands from smartctl that hit this condition.

Published: 2026-06-25 Last update: 2026-07-07 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-53164 is rated Low Risk (22.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.12%). 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-2026-53164

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 2026-07-08 0.17% 0.12% -0.05%
2 2026-06-25 0.17%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-53164

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-2026-53164

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-53164

GHSA-rwq9-95v8-58fq · Severity: medium — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/dma: Do not try to...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-53164

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2026-53164 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-2026-53164
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53164
suse medium CVE-2026-53164 severity moderate: SUSE including 21 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 199 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 199. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53164/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-53164 medium priority: Ubuntu including 162 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1458 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1051, ignored 172, not-affected 112, released 88, needed 35. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-53164

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-53164

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.16, < 6.18.36 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.19, < 7.0.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 7.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.1:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-53164

cvelogic Threat Intelligence