CVE-2026-23101
Linux Kernel 3.7 – 5.10.249
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-23101 is a medium-severity Use of Uninitialized Resource (CWE-908) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-5441
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: leds: led-class: Only Add LED to leds_list when it is fully ready Before this change the LED was added to leds_list before led_init_core() gets called adding it the list before…
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led_classdev.set_brightness_work gets initialized. This leaves a window where led_trigger_register() of a LED's default trigger will call led_trigger_set() which calls led_set_brightness() which in turn will end up queueing the *uninitialized* led_classdev.set_brightness_work. This race gets hit by the lenovo-thinkpad-t14s EC driver which registers 2 LEDs with a default trigger provided by snd_ctl_led.ko in quick succession. The first led_classdev_register() causes an async modprobe of snd_ctl_led to run and that async modprobe manages to exactly hit the window where the second LED is on the leds_list without led_init_core() being called for it, resulting in: ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 11 PID: 5608 at kernel/workqueue.c:4234 __flush_work+0x344/0x390 Hardware name: LENOVO 21N2S01F0B/21N2S01F0B, BIOS N42ET93W (2.23 ) 09/01/2025 ... Call trace: __flush_work+0x344/0x390 (P) flush_work+0x2c/0x50 led_trigger_set+0x1c8/0x340 led_trigger_register+0x17c/0x1c0 led_trigger_register_simple+0x84/0xe8 snd_ctl_led_init+0x40/0xf88 [snd_ctl_led] do_one_initcall+0x5c/0x318 do_init_module+0x9c/0x2b8 load_module+0x7e0/0x998 Close the race window by moving the adding of the LED to leds_list to after the led_init_core() call.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) can find uses of uninitialized resources after they are coded.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate initialization checks and safe patterns that stop the weakness from being introduced.
Engineering principles can require explicit resource initialization before use, structurally avoiding uninitialized access.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC activities such as static analysis and code review directly prevent use of uninitialized resources while also addressing many other weaknesses.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing in development and acceptance can detect uninitialized resource usage through dynamic analysis and fuzzing.
Secure development life cycle mandates initialization checks and static analysis that can catch uninitialized resource use.
Application security requirements can specify mandatory initialization of variables and resources before use.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include defensive coding practices that prevent use of uninitialized memory or objects.
Secure coding standards directly require explicit initialization of all variables and resources, substantially mitigating CWE-908.