Linux Kernel Vulnerability Fix: Lpuart Driver Suspension Issue

CVE-2024-46706

What is CVE-2024-46706?

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tty: serial: fsl_lpuart: mark last busy before uart_add_one_port

With "earlycon initcall_debug=1 loglevel=8" in bootargs, kernel sometimes boot hang. It is because normal console still is not ready, but runtime suspend is called, so early console putchar will hang in waiting TRDE set in UARTSTAT.

The lpuart driver has auto suspend delay set to 3000ms, but during uart_add_one_port, a child device serial ctrl will added and probed with its pm runtime enabled(see serial_ctrl.c). The runtime suspend call path is: device_add |-> bus_probe_device |->device_initial_probe |->__device_attach |-> pm_runtime_get_sync(dev->parent); |-> pm_request_idle(dev); |-> pm_runtime_put(dev->parent);

So in the end, before normal console ready, the lpuart get runtime suspended. And earlycon putchar will hang.

To address the issue, mark last busy just after pm_runtime_enable, three seconds is long enough to switch from bootconsole to normal console.

References