What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-36778: i2c: xiic: fix reference leak when pm_runtime_get_sync fails

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2024-02-28 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: xiic: fix reference leak when pm_runtime_get_sync fails The PM reference count is not expected to be incremented on return in xiic_xfer and xiic_i2c_remove. However, pm_runtime_get_sync will increment the PM reference count even failed. Forgetting to putting operation will result in a reference leak here. Replace it with pm_runtime_resume_and_get to keep usage counter balanced.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 5.6 before 5.10.37; from 5.11 before 5.11.21; from 5.12 before 5.12.4 — fixed in 5.10.37, 5.11.21, 5.12.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.37, 5.11.21, 5.12.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a42ac16e6573f19c78f556ea292f5b534fcc4514
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a85c5c7a3aa8041777ff691400b4046e56149fd3
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c977426db644ba476938125597947979e8aba725
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e2ba996577eaea423694dc69ae43d56f1410a22b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a42ac16e6573f19c78f556ea292f5b534fcc4514
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a85c5c7a3aa8041777ff691400b4046e56149fd3
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c977426db644ba476938125597947979e8aba725
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e2ba996577eaea423694dc69ae43d56f1410a22b

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