CVE-2026-31656

Source
https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-31656
Import Source
https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-31656.json
JSON Data
https://api.test.osv.dev/v1/vulns/CVE-2026-31656
Downstream
Published
2026-04-24T14:45:07.738Z
Modified
2026-05-18T05:59:53.356658148Z
Severity
  • 7.8 (High) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CVSS Calculator
Summary
drm/i915/gt: fix refcount underflow in intel_engine_park_heartbeat
Details

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

drm/i915/gt: fix refcount underflow in intelenginepark_heartbeat

A use-after-free / refcount underflow is possible when the heartbeat worker and intelenginepark_heartbeat() race to release the same engine->heartbeat.systole request.

The heartbeat worker reads engine->heartbeat.systole and calls i915requestput() on it when the request is complete, but clears the pointer in a separate, non-atomic step. Concurrently, a request retirement on another CPU can drop the engine wakeref to zero, triggering _enginepark() -> intelengineparkheartbeat(). If the heartbeat timer is pending at that point, canceldelayedwork() returns true and intelengineparkheartbeat() reads the stale non-NULL systole pointer and calls i915requestput() on it again, causing a refcount underflow:

<4> [487.221889] Workqueue: i915-unordered engine_retire [i915]
<4> [487.222640] RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x68/0xb0
...
<4> [487.222707] Call Trace:
<4> [487.222711]  <TASK>
<4> [487.222716]  intel_engine_park_heartbeat.part.0+0x6f/0x80 [i915]
<4> [487.223115]  intel_engine_park_heartbeat+0x25/0x40 [i915]
<4> [487.223566]  __engine_park+0xb9/0x650 [i915]
<4> [487.223973]  ____intel_wakeref_put_last+0x2e/0xb0 [i915]
<4> [487.224408]  __intel_wakeref_put_last+0x72/0x90 [i915]
<4> [487.224797]  intel_context_exit_engine+0x7c/0x80 [i915]
<4> [487.225238]  intel_context_exit+0xf1/0x1b0 [i915]
<4> [487.225695]  i915_request_retire.part.0+0x1b9/0x530 [i915]
<4> [487.226178]  i915_request_retire+0x1c/0x40 [i915]
<4> [487.226625]  engine_retire+0x122/0x180 [i915]
<4> [487.227037]  process_one_work+0x239/0x760
<4> [487.227060]  worker_thread+0x200/0x3f0
<4> [487.227068]  ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
<4> [487.227075]  kthread+0x10d/0x150
<4> [487.227083]  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
<4> [487.227092]  ret_from_fork+0x3d4/0x480
<4> [487.227099]  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
<4> [487.227107]  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
<4> [487.227141]  </TASK>

Fix this by replacing the non-atomic pointer read + separate clear with xchg() in both racing paths. xchg() is a single indivisible hardware instruction that atomically reads the old pointer and writes NULL. This guarantees only one of the two concurrent callers obtains the non-NULL pointer and performs the put, the other gets NULL and skips it.

(cherry picked from commit 13238dc0ee4f9ab8dafa2cca7295736191ae2f42)

Database specific
{
    "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/31xxx/CVE-2026-31656.json",
    "cna_assigner": "Linux"
}
References

Affected packages

Git / git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git

Affected ranges

Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
058179e72e0956a2dfe4927db6cbe5fbfb2406aa
Fixed
70d3e622b10092fc483e28e57b4e8c49d9cc7f68
Fixed
8ce44d28a84fd5e053a88b04872a89d95c0779d4
Fixed
ca3f48c3567dd49efdc55b80029ae74659c682ee
Fixed
a00e92bf6583d019a4fb2c2df7007e6c9b269ce7
Fixed
2af8b200cae3fdd0e917ecc2753b28bb40c876c1
Fixed
455d98ed527fc94eed90406f90ab2391464ca657
Fixed
4c71fd099513bfa8acab529b626e1f0097b76061

Database specific

source
"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-31656.json"

Linux / Kernel

Package

Name
Kernel

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
5.5.0
Fixed
5.15.203
Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
5.16.0
Fixed
6.1.169
Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
6.2.0
Fixed
6.6.135
Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
6.7.0
Fixed
6.12.82
Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
6.13.0
Fixed
6.18.23
Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
6.19.0
Fixed
6.19.13

Database specific

source
"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-31656.json"