[CVE-2026-74462][LOW] i2c: imx: mark I2C adapter when hardware is powered down

[CVE-2026-74462][LOW] i2c: imx: mark I2C adapter when hardware is powered down

[AL-KERNEL]

CVE: CVE-2026-74462
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: i2c: imx: mark I2C adapter when hardware is powered down
Commit: 7a5db225ab5a6b095f6c37197b3b114921d85541
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=7a5db225ab5a6b095f6c37197b3b114921d85541
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74462
Analysis date: Sat, 15 Aug 2026 12:16:13 -0400
ActionableScore: 2
ActionableScore lower bound: 0
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate / Low-like
Manual review required: NO

Summary:
An i2c imx suspend/resume race can allow a periodic I2C transfer to access controller registers while clocks or pinctrl resources are unavailable, causing a platform-specific system hang.

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ABOUT THIS REPORT
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-74462 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74462

The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity
estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the
reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue.

This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines
an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a
separate ActionableScore mechanism.

The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before
manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and
support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful
security impact.

Published priority for this report: LOW
Manual review required: NO

A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included
at the end of this message.

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AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
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CVE-2026-74462	LOW	CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE	Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';CWE-362;CWE-667;CWE-703;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';BEST CVSS score: '4.7';DESCR 'The i2c imx controller can be accessed during the suspend_noirq or resume_noirq window while clocks or pinctrl resources are already disabled or not yet restored. A periodic I2C client workqueue or slave timer can issue a transfer in this window and the driver may touch unavailable hardware registers, causing a system hang. For the CVSS the PR:L is used for the paranoid score because some systems allow a local user or a limited service to request suspend/resume through a policy manager, even though many embedded deployments restrict this to administrators. The issue is not network reachable and is tied to local power management state transitions on affected i.MX platforms. Impact is denial of service only. For the paranoid score, the highest still defensible interpretation remains DoS only because the patch context shows unsafe hardware access during power down, not UAF, OOB access, or another memory corruption primitive.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate / Low-like (with actual score 1)  SKIP CVE-2026-74462 UNKNOWN SKIP The Fixes patch not applied yet, so unlikely that actual: 358025ac091e5a54f9819b33ee9c7cb07c55ee5d YES  NO NO unknown 	MAYBE	USB INIT TIMER HARDWARE LINUS  DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS_AND_CIANNH	-	-	checked

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ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
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ActionableScore=2
ActionableScoreLower=0

## 1. ActionableScore

* Conservative score: 0
* Paranoid score: 2
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate / Low-like**::

## 2. Signal breakdown

Paranoid scoring signals:

* Reliable kernel crash / strong DoS: +1
  The commit explicitly says an I2C transfer while clocks or pinctrl are unavailable may lead to a system hang.

* Availability impact realistic: +1
  The impact is a whole-system suspend/resume hang on affected i.MX platforms, not just a local warning or recoverable error.

* Hard or unreliable race / special timing required: -1
  The trigger depends on a narrow suspend_noirq/resume_noirq window and a periodic I2C client workqueue or slave timer firing at the wrong time.

* Rare AND difficult-to-reach subsystem/configuration: -1
  The issue is limited to some i.MX platforms and depends on affected I2C client behavior during system suspend/resume.

Conservative interpretation additionally treats suspend/resume control as administrator or policy-manager controlled in many embedded deployments, so the practical score falls to 0.

No memory corruption, UAF, OOB access, refcount misuse, page-cache corruption, credential bypass, or privilege escalation primitive is supported by the patch.

Call-site confidence: high. The affected PM callbacks and the exact blocked transfer window are present in the supplied patch context.

## 3. Reachability analysis

The bug is triggered locally through system suspend/resume timing, not by network traffic. A local unprivileged user may be able to request suspend on some systems through desktop or policy-manager mechanisms, but many embedded i.MX deployments restrict this to privileged system components or administrators. Namespaces and containers do not materially improve reachability unless they are allowed to influence host power management, which is uncommon. The path is platform-specific and depends on I2C clients continuing periodic work while the controller resources are powered down.

## 4. Severity interpretation

This behaves like an ordinary Moderate or Low-like platform DoS issue. The realistic impact is a system hang during suspend/resume on affected i.MX systems. Theoretical escalation is not supported because the fix only prevents register access while hardware resources are unavailable, and does not indicate stale kernel object reuse, writable memory corruption, callback control, or access-control bypass.

## 5. One-sentence report phrase

An i2c imx suspend/resume race can allow a periodic I2C transfer to access controller registers while clocks or pinctrl resources are unavailable, causing a platform-specific system hang.

## 6. Manual review recommendation

NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED

This can be handled as an auto-close or deferred Moderate/Low-like issue because the patch supports DoS only, with no memory corruption or privilege escalation evidence.

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UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY
======================================================================

Patch: i2c: imx: mark I2C adapter when hardware is powered down
Commit: 7a5db225ab5a6b095f6c37197b3b114921d85541
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=7a5db225ab5a6b095f6c37197b3b114921d85541

Commit description:

On some i.MX platforms, certain I2C client drivers keep a periodic
workqueue which continues to trigger I2C transfers.

During system suspend/resume, there exists a time window between:
  - suspend_noirq and the system entering suspend
  - the system starting to resume and resume_noirq

In this window, the I2C controller resources such as clock and pinctrl
may already be disabled or not yet restored.

If a workqueue triggers an I2C transfer in this period, the driver
attempts to access I2C registers while the hardware resources are
unavailable, which may lead to system hang.

Mark the I2C adapter as suspended during noirq suspend and block new
transfers until resume, ensuring that I2C transfers are only issued
when hardware resources are available.

Fixes: 358025a ("i2c: imx: make controller available until system suspend_noirq() and from resume_noirq()")
Signed-off-by: Carlos Song <carlos.song@nxp.com>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # v6.14+
Reviewed-by: Frank Li <Frank.Li@nxp.com>
Acked-by: Oleksij Rempel <o.rempel@pengutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Andi Shyti <andi.shyti@kernel.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260525030400.3182911-1-carlos.song@oss.nxp.com
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>

Changed files:
  drivers/i2c/busses/i2c-imx.c

Diff excerpt:

Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch.

Full patch:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=7a5db225ab5a6b095f6c37197b3b114921d85541

======================================================================
DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY
======================================================================

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-74462 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74462

The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level
estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact
level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a
practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list
is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information.

The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel
CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help
identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure.

This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel
vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin.

The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional
LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is
based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms
produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness
types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore.

Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability
information often permits more than one defensible interpretation:

  Conservative CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
  The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.7

The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation.
The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound
interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated
real-world impact.

CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment,
because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration,
hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental
conditions can differ significantly between systems.

A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation
urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites,
subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service
reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or
privilege-escalation impact.

  Conservative ActionableScore: 0
  Paranoid ActionableScore: 2

The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated
field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not
replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and
if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see
self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7.

For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following
additional presentation split:

  ActionableScore below 5   -> MODERATE REGULAR
  ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0

The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it
possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis
and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases,
MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update.

There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0
even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result
contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as
MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without
usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens
and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage).

KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly
serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification
workflow.

AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: LOW
KPANIC detected for this report: NO
Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): LOW

These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are
machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should
be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition.
For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/
(and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report
for non-existant CVE-id yet).

Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than
real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or
Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases,
please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses
info to this particular CVE.
And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants
or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I
need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar).
My contact email for such notifications is alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both
send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).