---
id: CVE-2026-97501
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  pinctrl: mediatek: paris: bypass pinctrl GPIO layer in set GPIO direction

  pinctrl_gpio_direction_input() / pinctrl_gpio_direction_output() take
  the pinctrl mutex
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  pinctrl: mediatek: paris: bypass pinctrl GPIO layer in set GPIO direction

  pinctrl_gpio_direction_input() / pinctrl_gpio_direction_output() take
  the pinctrl mutex. This…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <
    428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b
  - >-
    Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <
    c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a
  - Linux < 6.18.53
  - Linux (all versions)
published: '2026-09-24'
updated: '2026-09-24'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-24T17:17:27.850'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97501'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/428b031dad390edd5da729b9afd474a95dc4f76b'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c87c9046c4e00d599454e033a477176c4d73ac2a'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ingestedAt: '2026-09-24T16:47:15.864Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

pinctrl: mediatek: paris: bypass pinctrl GPIO layer in set GPIO direction

pinctrl_gpio_direction_input() / pinctrl_gpio_direction_output() take
the pinctrl mutex. This causes a gpiochip operations to need to sleep.
Worse yet, the .can_sleep field in the gpiochip is not set. This causes
the shared GPIO proxy to trip over, as it uses gpiod_cansleep() to check
whether it can use a spinlock or needs a mutex. In this case, it ends
up taking a spinlock, then calls pinctrl_gpio_direction_output(), which
takes a mutex. This causes a huge warning.

While this class of Mediatek hardware does not have separate clear/set
registers, the pinctrl context has a spinlock that is taken whenever
a register read-modify-write is done. Also, once the GPIO function is
selected / muxed in, further GPIO operations do not involve pinctrl
operations or state. The GPIO direction and level values do not require
toggling the pinmux or any other pin config options.

Switch to directly calling mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction() in the GPIO
set direction callbacks to avoid taking the pinctrl mutex. Drop the
.gpio_set_direction field in mtk_pmxops to signal we are no longer using
the pinctrl GPIO layer for setting the direction.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.