CVE-2026-53180
HIGHCVE-2026-53180 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-667 vulnerability in Kernel. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-53180 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
timers/migration: Fix livelock in tmigr_handle_remote_up()
Real-World Exposure
KernelReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Linux packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
timers/migration: Fix livelock in tmigr_handle_remote_up()
tmigr_handle_remote_cpu() skips timer_expire_remote() when cpu == smp_processor_id(), assuming the local softirq path already handled this CPU's timers.
This assumption is wrong because jiffies can advance after the handling of the CPU's global timers in run_timer_base(BASE_GLOBAL) and before tmigr_handle_remote() evaluates the expiry times.
As a consequence a timer which expires after the CPU local timer wheel advanced and becomes expired in the remote handling is ignored and the callback is never invoked and removed from the timer wheel.
What's worse is that fetch_next_timer_interrupt_remote() keeps reporting it as expired, and the event is re-queued with expires == now on each iteration. The goto-again loop spins indefinitely.
Fix this by calling timer_expire_remote() unconditionally. That's minimal overhead for the common case as __run_timer_base() returns immediately if there is nothing to expire in the local wheel.
[ tglx: Amend change log and add a comment ]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐧Linux | Kernel | ≥ 6.9.0&&< 6.12.94 | 6.12.94 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Kernel. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update Kernel to 6.12.94 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-53180 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-53180 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-53180. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-53180 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-53180 across Linux dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.