CVE-2025-71233: PCI: endpoint: Avoid creating sub-groups asynchronously

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-02-18 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI: endpoint: Avoid creating sub-groups asynchronously The asynchronous creation of sub-groups by a delayed work could lead to a NULL pointer dereference when the driver directory is removed before the work completes. The crash can be easily reproduced with the following commands: # cd /sys/kernel/config/pci_ep/functions/pci_epf_test # for i in {1..20}; do mkdir test && rmdir test; done BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000088 ... Call Trace: configfs_register_group+0x3d/0x190 pci_epf_cfs_work+0x41/0x110 process_one_work+0x18f/0x350 worker_thread+0x25a/0x3a0 Fix this issue by using configfs_add_default_group() API which does not have the deadlock problem as configfs_register_group() and does not require the delayed work handler. [mani: slightly reworded the description and added stable list]

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.12 before 5.15.201; from 5.16 before 6.1.164; from 6.2 before 6.6.127; from 6.7 before 6.12.72; from 6.13 before 6.18.11; from 6.19 before 6.19.1 — fixed in 5.15.201, 6.1.164, 6.12.72, 6.18.11, 6.19.1, 6.6.127

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.201, 6.1.164, 6.12.72, 6.18.11. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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