[CVE-2026-74553][LOW] hwmon: (nct6775-core) Fix number of temperature registers for NCT6116 [ Upstream

[AL-KERNEL <alkernel@kernelcve.org>]

CVE: CVE-2026-74553
Priority: LOW
AL-KERNEL base severity: LOW
KPANIC flag: NO
Patch: hwmon: (nct6775-core) Fix number of temperature registers for NCT6116 [ Upstream
Commit: 9a87dfaa05c3c9d3a4cdb7eafc1ab4abc84f6eef
Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=9a87dfaa05c3c9d3a4cdb7eafc1ab4abc84f6eef
Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74553
Analysis date: Sat, 15 Aug 2026 11:47:47 -0400
ActionableScore: 0
ActionableScore lower bound: unknown
Actionable bucket: Ordinary Moderate / Low-like
Manual review required: NO

Summary:
No one-sentence report phrase was found.

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

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-74553 is available here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74553

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.

======================================================================
AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT
======================================================================

CVE-2026-74553	LOW	CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN LOW	Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L';CWE-125;CWE-129;CWE-682;Other CVSS 'AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L';BEST CVSS score: '4.2';DESCR 'An out of bounds read in the nct6775 hwmon probe path occurs because NCT6116 has only three temperature source registers while the code used the NCT6106 register count of six. This can make nct6775_probe read past a global static register array and produce a KASAN global-out-of-bounds report during driver probing. For the CVSS the PR:H is selected because reliable triggering normally requires administrative control over module loading or driver probing on a system with the affected NCT6116 hardware. The issue is not network reachable and is tied to local hardware specific initialization rather than runtime packet or syscall input. Impact is mainly limited availability impact through warning, failed probe, or incorrect hwmon initialization. The paranoid score allows low confidentiality and integrity impact because the primitive is an invalid read from adjacent static kernel data, but there is no supported path to arbitrary write, UAF, or privilege escalation.';NO MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Ordinary Moderate / Low-like (with actual score 0)	YES	READ KASAN OOB HARDWARE  DECREASED_TO_MODERATE_REGULAR_FROM_MODERATE7_BASED_ON_GUESSCVSS DECREASED_TO_LOW_FROM_MODERATE_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCORELESSTHAN3	NO	NO	checked

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ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS
======================================================================

ActionableScore=0

1. ActionableScore
* Conservative score: 0
* Paranoid score: 0
* Final recommended bucket: **Ordinary Moderate / Low-like**

2. Signal breakdown
* Limited read-only OOB: +0. The bug is a global out-of-bounds read of a static register-address array during nct6775_probe. There is no OOB write, UAF, double-free, refcount bug, type confusion, or attacker-controlled overwrite.
* Availability impact realistic: +1 at most. The demonstrated effect is a KASAN report and possible probe failure or incorrect hwmon initialization. This is not a strong system-wide DoS in normal production kernels.
* Requires admin/root/CAP_* in typical deployments: -2. Reliable triggering normally requires module loading, driver probing, or hardware/driver management privileges.
* Physical-only or rare hardware-only condition: -2. The issue is specific to systems with NCT6116-compatible hardware and the nct6775 driver path.
* No remote/network exposure: +0. This is not reachable through packet processing or a network protocol.
* No LPE primitive: +0. The patch does not support reclaim, stale object reuse, write-after-free, callback control, arbitrary write, or similar escalation primitives.
* Call-site confidence: high. The relevant probe path and affected array/count relationship are present in the supplied diff and commit text.

3. Reachability analysis
The bug is triggered during local hardware driver probing for NCT6116 in the nct6775 hwmon driver. In typical deployments, an attacker would need administrative control to load the module, bind/probe the device, or otherwise control driver initialization. Namespaces and containers do not materially lower the requirement because this is a host hardware driver path, not a namespaced unprivileged API. The affected path is hardware-specific and not a broad default remote attack surface.

4. Severity interpretation
This behaves like a Low or ordinary Moderate correctness/security hardening issue rather than an actionable Moderate or Important vulnerability. The theoretical primitive is a small read past a global static array, but there is no evidence of user-visible disclosure, memory corruption write, privilege escalation, or reliable host-wide crash. The realistic impact is limited to KASAN warning, failed probe, or incorrect sensor initialization on affected hardware.

5. One-sentence report phrase
The NCT6116 nct6775 probe path can read past a static temperature register array because it uses the wrong register count, causing a KASAN global-out-of-bounds report during privileged hardware driver initialization.

6. Manual review recommendation
NO MANUAL CHECK NEEDED. The issue is PR:H, hardware-specific, not network reachable, and limited to read-only OOB during probe without a supported privilege escalation or strong DoS primitive.

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

Patch: hwmon: (nct6775-core) Fix number of temperature registers for NCT6116 [ Upstream
Commit: 9a87dfaa05c3c9d3a4cdb7eafc1ab4abc84f6eef
Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=9a87dfaa05c3c9d3a4cdb7eafc1ab4abc84f6eef

Changed files:
  drivers/hwmon/nct6775-core.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=9a87dfaa05c3c9d3a4cdb7eafc1ab4abc84f6eef

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

The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-74553 can be found here:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-74553

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:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
  The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
  The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 4.2

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: unknown
  Paranoid ActionableScore: 0

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).