In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: airoha: Fix DMA direction for NPU mailbox buffer
airoha_npu_send_msg() always maps the mailbox buffer with DMA_TO_DEVICE, but some callers expect the NPU to write response data back into the same buffer:
- airoha_npu_wlan_msg_get() (NPU_OP_GET): NPU writes response into the buffer, then the caller reads it via memcpy() - airoha_npu_ppe_stats_setup() (NPU_OP_SET): NPU writes back npu_stats_addr field in the response
On non-cache-coherent architectures like EN7581 (Cortex-A53 without hardware cache coherency for NPU DMA), DMA_TO_DEVICE unmap is a no-op — it does not invalidate the CPU cache. If the NPU-written cache line is still present in the CPU cache when the caller reads the buffer, the CPU observes stale data instead of the NPU response.
This is a timing-sensitive bug: small mailbox buffers (~24 bytes) typically fit in a single cache line and may survive in the cache until the caller reads them, producing silent data corruption rather than a crash. The bug is more likely to trigger when the caller reads the response immediately after dma_unmap_single() without intervening cache-evicting operations.
Fix by using DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL for both map and unmap, which ensures dma_unmap_single() invalidates the CPU cache on non-coherent systems. The mailbox buffers are small so there is no performance concern.
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade linux-image-oracle-7.0Upgrade linux-image-7.0.0-38-generic-64kUpgrade linux-image-gke-64kUpgrade linux-image-oracle-64kUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1014-gcp-64kUpgrade linux-image-generic-64kUpgrade linux-image-generic-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-7.0.0-38-realtime-64kUpgrade linux-image-azure-fdeUpgrade linux-image-genericUpgrade linux-image-aws-7.0Upgrade linux-image-gcp-64k-7.0Upgrade linux-image-realtime-7.0Upgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1008-gkeUpgrade linux-image-gcp-64kUpgrade linux-image-azureUpgrade linux-image-generic-64k-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-azure-7.0Upgrade linux-image-aws-64k-7.0Upgrade linux-image-realtime-64k-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-realtime-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-virtual-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1014-gcpUpgrade linux-image-ibm-7.0Upgrade linux-image-gke-7.0Upgrade linux-image-oem-26.04Upgrade linux-image-gke-64k-7.0Upgrade linux-image-oem-26.04aUpgrade linux-image-oem-7.0Upgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1017-azureUpgrade linux-image-generic-hwe-24.04Upgrade linux-image-ibmUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-38-realtimeUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1013-oracle-64kUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-38-genericUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1008-gke-64kUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1014-awsUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1015-oemUpgrade linux-image-virtual-7.0Upgrade linux-image-awsUpgrade linux-image-generic-7.0Upgrade linux-image-generic-64k-7.0Upgrade linux-image-azure-fde-lts-26.04Upgrade linux-image-oracleUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1013-oracleUpgrade linux-image-oracle-64k-7.0Upgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1014-aws-64kUpgrade linux-image-gkeUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1015-ibmUpgrade linux-image-azure-fde-7.0Upgrade linux-image-gke-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-azure-lts-26.04Upgrade linux-image-realtime-64k-7.0Upgrade linux-image-gcp-7.0Upgrade linux-image-gke-64k-hwe-26.04Upgrade linux-image-aws-64kUpgrade linux-image-realtimeUpgrade linux-image-generic-64k-hwe-24.04Upgrade linux-image-realtime-64kUpgrade linux-image-7.0.0-1016-azure-fdeUpgrade linux-image-virtual-hwe-24.04Upgrade linux-image-virtualUpgrade linux-image-gcp | Oct 7, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
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