In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
crypto: qat - flush misc workqueue during device shutdown
Repeated loading and unloading of a device specific QAT driver, for example qat_4xxx, in a tight loop can lead to a crash due to a use-after-free scenario. This occurs when a power management (PM) interrupt triggers just before the device-specific driver (e.g., qat_4xxx.ko) is unloaded, while the core driver (intel_qat.ko) remains loaded.
Since the driver uses a shared workqueue (qat_misc_wq) across all
devices and owned by intel_qat.ko, a deferred routine from the
device-specific driver may still be pending in the queue. If this
routine executes after the driver is unloaded, it can dereference freed
memory, resulting in a page fault and kernel crash like the following:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffa000002e50a01c
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
RIP: 0010:pm_bh_handler+0x1d2/0x250 [intel_qat]
Call Trace:
pm_bh_handler+0x1d2/0x250 [intel_qat]
process_one_work+0x171/0x340
worker_thread+0x277/0x3a0
kthread+0xf0/0x120
ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50
To prevent this, flush the misc workqueue during device shutdown to ensure that all pending work items are completed before the driver is unloaded.
Note: This approach may slightly increase shutdown latency if the workqueue contains jobs from other devices, but it ensures correctness and stability.