CVE-2023-52456: serial: imx: fix tx statemachine deadlock

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: 2024-02-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-667

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: imx: fix tx statemachine deadlock When using the serial port as RS485 port, the tx statemachine is used to control the RTS pin to drive the RS485 transceiver TX_EN pin. When the TTY port is closed in the middle of a transmission (for instance during userland application crash), imx_uart_shutdown disables the interface and disables the Transmission Complete interrupt. afer that, imx_uart_stop_tx bails on an incomplete transmission, to be retriggered by the TC interrupt. This interrupt is disabled and therefore the tx statemachine never transitions out of SEND. The statemachine is in deadlock now, and the TX_EN remains low, making the interface useless. imx_uart_stop_tx now checks for incomplete transmission AND whether TC interrupts are enabled before bailing to be retriggered. This makes sure the state machine handling is reached, and is properly set to WAIT_AFTER_SEND.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.9.0 before 5.10.209; from 5.11.0 before 5.15.148; from 5.16.0 before 6.1.75; from 6.2.0 before 6.6.14; from 6.7.0 before 6.7.2 — fixed in 5.10.209, 5.15.148, 6.1.75, 6.6.14, 6.7.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.209, 5.15.148, 6.1.75, 6.6.14. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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