CVE-2025-38174: thunderbolt: Do not double dequeue a configuration request

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-07-04 · updated 2026-07-30

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: thunderbolt: Do not double dequeue a configuration request Some of our devices crash in tb_cfg_request_dequeue(): general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdead000000000122 CPU: 6 PID: 91007 Comm: kworker/6:2 Tainted: G U W 6.6.65 RIP: 0010:tb_cfg_request_dequeue+0x2d/0xa0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? tb_cfg_request_dequeue+0x2d/0xa0 tb_cfg_request_work+0x33/0x80 worker_thread+0x386/0x8f0 kthread+0xed/0x110 ret_from_fork+0x38/0x50 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 The circumstances are unclear, however, the theory is that tb_cfg_request_work() can be scheduled twice for a request: first time via frame.callback from ring_work() and second time from tb_cfg_request(). Both times kworkers will execute tb_cfg_request_dequeue(), which results in double list_del() from the ctl->request_queue (the list poison deference hints at it: 0xdead000000000122). Do not dequeue requests that don't have TB_CFG_REQUEST_ACTIVE bit set.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 11.0
Linux kernel: from 3.17 before 5.4.295; from 5.5 before 5.10.239; from 5.11 before 5.15.186; from 5.16 before 6.1.142; from 6.2 before 6.6.94; from 6.7 before 6.12.33 — fixed in 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 5.4.295, 6.1.142, 6.12.33, 6.14.11

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 5.4.295, 6.1.142. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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