CVE-2026-97526
Received
Received - Intake
Kernel Panic in Linux Kernel Due to Missing CPU Hotplug Support in PAI
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-97526, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-09-25
Last updated on: 2026-09-25
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
s390/pai: Support CPU hotplug for PMU PAI
The command 'perf stat -e pai_crypto/CRYPTO_ALL/ -- <command>'
crashes the kernel when CPUs are hotplug added during that run.
Root cause is the missing allocation of per-CPU data structures
for that new CPU. The allocation is dynamic and the first
event that has task context creates such a structure for
each online CPU. This is not sufficient. CPUs may be offline
during event creation and can be set online during the
perf run time. For example commands
# echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online
# perf stat -e cycles -i -- stress-ng -t10s --matrix X
# sleep 1
# echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online
Currently without a CPU hotplug handler, that new CPU has no
per-CPU data infrastructure. The scheduler runs PMU call back
function pai_add() to install the PMU support for that CPU before
the task is being scheduled on that new CPU.
In pai_add() instructions
mp = this_cpu_ptr(pai_root[idx].mapptr);
cpump = mp->mapptr;
return a NULL pointer and the result is a kernel panic as variable
cpump is used inside that function.
Add CPU hotplug support for CPU add and delete and create
the necessary per-CPU data infrastructure during CPU hotplug
add processing. Same for CPU hotplug remove.
This is done when the CPU is offline to ensure the data structures
are available when CPU is made online and tasks are scheduled on it.
[hca@linux.ibm.com: fixup error path in pai_init()]
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
