CVE-2026-72142: Linux

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: imx: fix locked bus on SMBus block-read of 0 (atomic) SMBus 3.1 6.5.7 allows a Block Read byte count of 0, but the atomic (polling) path rejects it as -EPROTO. Worse, it returns without a NACK+STOP: the next receive cycle has already started, so the target keeps holding SDA and the bus stays stuck until a power cycle for this i2c controller. Reading I2DR to obtain the count likewise arms the next byte on the count > I2C_SMBUS_BLOCK_MAX path, which also returned -EPROTO directly and left the bus held. Handle both: NACK the in-flight dummy byte (TXAK) and extend msgs->len so the existing last-byte handling emits STOP; the dummy byte is discarded. A count of 0 is a valid empty block read; a count above I2C_SMBUS_BLOCK_MAX is still reported as -EPROTO, but only after the bus has been released. The interrupt-driven path has the same flaw from a later commit and is fixed separately, as it carries a different Fixes: tag and stable range.

Affected products

• Linux Linux: from 3.16, before 5.10.266 (fixed in 5.10.266); from 5.11, before 5.15.217 (fixed in 5.15.217); from 5.16, before 6.1.184 (fixed in 6.1.184); from 6.2, before 6.6.148 (fixed in 6.6.148); from 6.7, before 6.12.101 (fixed in 6.12.101); from 6.13, before 6.18.40 (fixed in 6.18.40); …

Published 2026-08-15. Last modified 2026-08-23.