CVE-2026-31486

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's hwmon subsystem, specifically within the pmbus/core module. The regulator operations, which manage power management bus (PMBus) registers and shared data, were not adequately protected by a mutex (a mechanism to prevent simultaneous access to shared resources). This oversight could allow for race conditions, where multiple operations attempt to access or modify the same data concurrently, potentially leading to unpredictable system behavior or instability.

This vulnerability is rated as Low severity because exploitation requires local user access and is restricted to systems utilizing specific PMBus hardware monitoring devices. In standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments, the affected subsystem is inactive unless specialized power management bus hardware is attached. A local user would need to race concurrent regulator operations or trigger specific fault handlers to cause system instability, limiting the impact to a denial of service on systems with this hardware present.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.