CVE-2024-38597: eth: sungem: 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: eth: sungem: remove .ndo_poll_controller to avoid deadlocks Erhard reports netpoll warnings from sungem: netpoll_send_skb_on_dev(): eth0 enabled interrupts in poll (gem_start_xmit+0x0/0x398) WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 1 at net/core/netpoll.c:370 netpoll_send_skb+0x1fc/0x20c gem_poll_controller() disables interrupts, which may sleep. We can't sleep in netpoll, it has interrupts disabled completely. Strangely, gem_poll_controller() doesn't even poll the completions, and instead acts as if an interrupt has fired so it just schedules NAPI and exits. None of this has been necessary for years, since netpoll invokes NAPI directly.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.1 before 5.10.219; from 5.11 before 5.15.161; from 5.16 before 6.1.93; from 6.2 before 6.6.33; from 6.7 before 6.8.12; from 6.9 before 6.9.3 — fixed in 5.10.219, 5.15.161, 6.1.93, 6.6.33, 6.8.12, 6.9.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.219, 5.15.161, 6.1.93, 6.6.33. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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