Overview
About vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
firmware_loader: Fix recursive lock in device_cache_fw_images()
A recursive locking deadlock can occur in the firmware loader’s power management notification handler.
During system suspend or hibernation preparation, fw_pm_notify() calls device_cache_fw_images(). This function acquires fw_lock to set the firmware cache state to FW_LOADER_START_CACHE and then iterates over all devices using dpm_for_each_dev() while still holding the lock.
For each device, dev_cache_fw_image() schedules asynchronous work to cache the firmware. If memory allocation for the async work entry fails (e.g., in out-of-memory conditions), async_schedule_node_domain() falls back to executing the work function synchronously in the current thread.
The synchronous execution path (__async_dev_cache_fw_image() -> cache_firmware() -> request_firmware() -> assign_fw()) attempts to acquire fw_lock again. Since the current thread already holds fw_lock, this results in a recursive locking deadlock.
Fix this by releasing fw_lock immediately after updating the cache state and before calling dpm_for_each_dev(). The lock is only needed to protect the state update. Concurrent firmware requests will correctly see the FW_LOADER_START_CACHE state and use the piggyback mechanism, which is independently protected by its own fwc->name_lock.
Details
- Affected product:
- AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , CentOS 7 ELS , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , CloudLinux 7 ELS , Debian 10 ELS , Debian 11 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , RHEL 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , TuxCare 9.8 ESU , Ubuntu 16.04 ELS , Ubuntu 18.04 ELS , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS
- Affected packages:
- linux @ 4.19.0 (+17 more)
Fixes
KernelCare state
Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.
| Operating system | Status | Covered kernels |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | Planned | — |
| Debian 12 | Released |
42 kernels
|
| Debian 13 | Released |
13 kernels
|
| Oracle Linux 8 UEK 7 | Released |
112 kernels
|
| Oracle Linux 9 UEK 7 | Released |
112 kernels
|
| Ubuntu 22.04 | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 AWS | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 Azure | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 AWS | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 | Will Not Fix | — |