CVE-2024-38553: net: fec: remove .ndo_poll_controller to avoid deadlocks

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: 2024-06-19 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-667

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: fec: remove .ndo_poll_controller to avoid deadlocks There is a deadlock issue found in sungem driver, please refer to the commit ac0a230f719b ("eth: sungem: remove .ndo_poll_controller to avoid deadlocks"). The root cause of the issue is that netpoll is in atomic context and disable_irq() is called by .ndo_poll_controller interface of sungem driver, however, disable_irq() might sleep. After analyzing the implementation of fec_poll_controller(), the fec driver should have the same issue. Due to the fec driver uses NAPI for TX completions, the .ndo_poll_controller is unnecessary to be implemented in the fec driver, so fec_poll_controller() can be safely removed.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.2 before 6.6.33; from 6.7 before 6.8.12; from 6.9 before 6.9.3 — fixed in 6.6.33, 6.8.12, 6.9.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.6.33, 6.8.12, 6.9.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2024-38553 or the next vulnerability affects your stack