CVE-2026-45968 PUBLISHED

cpuidle: Skip governor when only one idle state is available

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 13.05.2026 Published: 27.05.2026 Updated: 27.05.2026

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

cpuidle: Skip governor when only one idle state is available

On certain platforms (PowerNV systems without a power-mgt DT node), cpuidle may register only a single idle state. In cases where that single state is a polling state (state 0), the ladder governor may incorrectly treat state 1 as the first usable state and pass an out-of-bounds index. This can lead to a NULL enter callback being invoked, ultimately resulting in a system crash.

[ 13.342636] cpuidle-powernv : Only Snooze is available [ 13.351854] Faulting instruction address: 0x00000000 [ 13.376489] NIP [0000000000000000] 0x0 [ 13.378351] LR [c000000001e01974] cpuidle_enter_state+0x2c4/0x668

Fix this by adding a bail-out in cpuidle_select() that returns state 0 directly when state_count <= 1, bypassing the governor and keeping the tick running.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to a0f7e804edc82e513d1ccb7c95ed8b351522ec81 (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to 5d103a38e2ae96eca57fd17161bcd29bd4622d1c (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to 4da2b897283c39980d6ae09dc1560fcd937879e5 (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to 5c577ac939bca486cb02069505cfe47a5312ce02 (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to 8f6833d919bae915ead6c599a53e81e19b32da52 (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to 63ae78336f40bcd9a44952a7c6bafb9c88a8effd (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to a0724e40a58a0e323c59707edeae5b71d15800dc (excl.)
  • affected from dc2251bf98c66db3f4e055b751968f0871037ae4 to e5c9ffc6ae1bcdb1062527d611043681ac301aca (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 4.14 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 4.14 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.252 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.202 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.165 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.128 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.75 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.14 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.19.4 to 6.19.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.0 to * (incl.)

References