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Linux Patched For Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Security on 6 August 2026 at 12:14 PM EDT. Add A Comment

Made public minutes ago is the Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability which is now patched in the newest Linux kernel Git code. The Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability stems from improper handling within Linux's Speculative Return Stack Overflow (SRSO) mitigation affecting AMD Zen 1 through Zen 4 processors.

The Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability comes down to a shortcoming in Linux's implementation of its mitigation for SRSO. As such the same AMD Zen 1 through Zen 4 processors are effected. The Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability could lead to the SRSO mitigation being weakened and/or information disclosure.

Today's AMD Security Bulletin explains:

"An external researcher has reported a potential vulnerability affecting AMD "Zen" architecture processors. The report claims that an attacker executing code on an affected system could inject an interrupt at a precise moment to disrupt “Safe RET,” the default Linux mitigation for Speculative Return Stack Overflow (SRSO), which could potentially weaken that protection and may result in information disclosure. The researcher states that this behavior was demonstrated on "Zen 1" and "Zen 2" processors and suggests that "Zen 3" and "Zen 4" could also be affected, although this has not been demonstrated.

Based on AMD’s current assessment, the reported issue appears to be associated with the Linux implementation of the Safe RET mitigation."

The Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability was discovered by researcher Daniël Trujillo with the MIT CSAIL.

This merge adds the mitigation for improving the SRSO Linux kernel code.

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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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