Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8 kernel/locking/mutex.c in_atomic denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function in_atomic of the file kernel/locking/mutex.c. Performing a manipulation results in denial of service. This vulnerability was named CVE-2024-57889. There is no available exploit. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8. This affects the function in_atomic of the file kernel/locking/mutex.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pinctrl: mcp23s08: Fix sleeping in atomic context due to regmap locking If a device uses MCP23xxx IO expander to receive IRQs, the following bug can happen: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:283 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 1, non_block: 0, ... preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 ... Call Trace: ... __might_resched+0x104/0x10e __might_sleep+0x3e/0x62 mutex_lock+0x20/0x4c regmap_lock_mutex+0x10/0x18 regmap_update_bits_base+0x2c/0x66 mcp23s08_irq_set_type+0x1ae/0x1d6 __irq_set_trigger+0x56/0x172 __setup_irq+0x1e6/0x646 request_threaded_irq+0xb6/0x160 ... We observed the problem while experimenting with a touchscreen driver which used MCP23017 IO expander (I2C). The regmap in the pinctrl-mcp23s08 driver uses a mutex for protection from concurrent accesses, which is the default for regmaps without .fast_io, .disable_locking, etc. mcp23s08_irq_set_type() calls regmap_update_bits_base(), and the latter locks the mutex. However, __setup_irq() locks desc->lock spinlock before calling these functions. As a result, the system tries to lock the mutex whole holding the spinlock. It seems, the internal regmap locks are not needed in this driver at all. mcp->lock seems to protect the regmap from concurrent accesses already, except, probably, in mcp_pinconf_get/set. mcp23s08_irq_set_type() and mcp23s08_irq_mask/unmask() are called under chip_bus_lock(), which calls mcp23s08_irq_bus_lock(). The latter takes mcp->lock and enables regmap caching, so that the potentially slow I2C accesses are deferred until chip_bus_unlock(). The accesses to the regmap from mcp23s08_probe_one() do not need additional locking. In all remaining places where the regmap is accessed, except mcp_pinconf_get/set(), the driver already takes mcp->lock. This patch adds locking in mcp_pinconf_get/set() and disables internal locking in the regmap config. Among other things, it fixes the sleeping in atomic context described above.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-57889 since 01/11/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 216985 (Debian dla-4076 : linux-config-6.1 - security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.4.289, 5.10.233, 5.15.176, 6.1.124, 6.6.70 or 6.12.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 788d9e9a41b81893d6bb8faa05f045c975278318/c55d186376a87b468c9ee30f2195e0f3857f61a0/9372e160d8211a7e17f2abff8370794f182df785/0310cbad163a908d09d99c26827859365cd71fcb/8c6fd5803b988a5e78c9b9e42c70a936d7cfc6ec/830f838589522404cd7c2f0f540602f25034af61/a37eecb705f33726f1fb7cd2a67e514a15dfe693 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (216985) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0105). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.4.288
• 5.10.232
• 5.15.175
• 6.1.123
• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.6.59
• 6.6.60
• 6.6.61
• 6.6.62
• 6.6.63
• 6.6.64
• 6.6.65
• 6.6.66
• 6.6.67
• 6.6.68
• 6.6.69
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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