The vulnerability originates from a DMA buffer used by the NZXT‑Smart2 hardware‑monitor driver in the Linux kernel. The buffer is not aligned to the architecture’s minimal DMA alignment. When a USB HID output report is transmitted, the kernel’s DMA mapping mechanism flushes or invalidates the cache line that contains the buffer. Because adjacent variables – the mutex lock and the update interval – share that same cache line, the cache flush corrupts those variables. As a result, memory corruption occurs deterministically whenever fan speed or update intervals are modified.

Any Linux system that includes the NZXT‑Smart2 hwmon driver on a non‑coherent CPU architecture – such as ARM or MIPS – may be affected. The flaw exists in all kernel versions up to the point where the driver source is updated to align the DMA buffer to ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN. Users deploying NZXT‑Smart2 hardware on these architectures, regardless of kernel version, are potentially exposed until the patch is applied.

The EPSS score is <1% and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA KEV catalog, so public exploit data are currently limited. The CVSS score of 7.8 indicates a high severity. Nevertheless, because the fault is triggered by user operations (e.g., changing fan speed through sysfs or a utility), an attacker with local or root privileges can induce the deterministic memory corruption. This can lead to crashes, data corruption, or privilege escalation, suggesting a high severity risk.