The Linux kernel driver for Mediatek Paris devices mistakenly acquires the pinctrl mutex during GPIO direction changes, even though the operation may need to sleep and the gpiochip is not marked as able to sleep. The driver’s logic forces a spinlock to be used while a mutex is actually required, causing a race condition and a massive kernel warning. This flaw can lead to unpredictable GPIO state, potential deadlock, and broader kernel instability, effectively a denial‑of‑service scenario rather than direct code execution.

The flaw resides in the Linux kernel’s pinctrl subsystem for Mediatek hardware. Any system running a kernel that includes this driver and that uses Mediatek Paris devices is susceptible. Specific kernel versions are not listed, but any kernel before the patch that implements the update to mtk_pinmux_gpio_set_direction is likely affected.

The CVSS score of 5.5 and an EPSS score of < 1% indicate a medium severity with a very low probability of exploitation, and it is not listed in CISA KEV. The attack vector is local; an adversary must be able to trigger GPIO direction changes on Mediatek hardware, such as through privileged user space utilities or driver code. While it may cause instability and is a significant risk for systems handling GPIO, it does not grant remote code execution. Exploitability depends on the presence of Mediatek hardware and the ability of malicious code to invoke the flawed GPIO APIs.