CVE-2026-23186: linux kernel vulnerability

What is known

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hwmon: (acpi_power_meter) Fix deadlocks related to acpi_power_meter_notify() The acpi_power_meter driver's .notify() callback function, acpi_power_meter_notify(), calls hwmon_device_unregister() under a lock that is also acquired by callbacks in sysfs attributes of the device being unregistered which is prone to deadlocks between sysfs access and device removal. Address this by moving the hwmon device removal in acpi_power_meter_notify() outside the lock in question, but notice that doing it alone is not sufficient because two concurrent METER_NOTIFY_CONFIG notifications may be attempting to remove the same device at the same time. To prevent that from happening, add a new lock serializing the execution of the switch () statement in acpi_power_meter_notify(). For simplicity, it is a static mutex which should not be a problem from the performance perspective. The new lock also allows the hwmon_device_register_with_info() in acpi_power_meter_notify() to be called outside the inner lock because it prevents the other notifications handled by that function from manipulating the "resource" object while the hwmon device based on it is being registered. The sending of ACPI netlink messages from acpi_power_meter_notify() is serialized by the new lock too which generally helps to ensure that the order of handling firmware notifications is the same as the order of sending netlink messages related to them. In addition, notice that hwmon_device_register_with_info() may fail in which case resource->hwmon_dev will become an error pointer, so add checks to avoid attempting to unregister the hwmon device pointer to by it in that case to acpi_power_meter_notify() and acpi_power_meter_remove().

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-23186, a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.5) affecting linux kernel, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether linux kernel is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

• NVD
• Reference
• Reference