CVE-2026-23115

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

serial: Fix not set tty->port race condition

Revert commit bfc467db60b7 (serial: remove redundant tty_port_link_device()) because the tty_port_link_device() is not redundant: the tty->port has to be confured before we call uart_configure_port(), otherwise user-space can open console without TTY linked to the driver.

This tty_port_link_device() was added explicitly to avoid this exact issue in commit fb2b90014d78 (tty: link tty and port before configuring it as console), so offending commit basically reverted the fix saying it is redundant without addressing the actual race condition presented there.

Reproducible always as tty->port warning on Qualcomm SoC with most of devices disabled, so with very fast boot, and one serial device being the console:

printk: legacy console [ttyMSM0] enabled printk: legacy console [ttyMSM0] enabled printk: legacy bootconsole [qcom_geni0] disabled printk: legacy bootconsole [qcom_geni0] disabled ————[ cut here ]———— tty_init_dev: ttyMSM driver does not set tty->port. This would crash the kernel. Fix the driver! WARNING: drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1414 at tty_init_dev.part.0+0x228/0x25c, CPU#2: systemd/1 Modules linked in: socinfo tcsrcc_eliza gcc_eliza sm3_ce fuse ipv6 CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Tainted: G S 6.19.0-rc4-next-20260108-00024-g2202f4d30aa8 #73 PREEMPT Tainted: [S]=CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC Hardware name: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Eliza (DT) … tty_init_dev.part.0 (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1414 (discriminator 11)) (P) tty_open (arch/arm64/include/asm/atomic_ll_sc.h:95 (discriminator 3) drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2073 (discriminator 3) drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2120 (discriminator 3)) chrdev_open (fs/char_dev.c:411) do_dentry_open (fs/open.c:962) vfs_open (fs/open.c:1094) do_open (fs/namei.c:4634) path_openat (fs/namei.c:4793) do_filp_open (fs/namei.c:4820) do_sys_openat2 (fs/open.c:1391 (discriminator 3)) … Starting Network Name Resolution…

Apparently the flow with this small Yocto-based ramdisk user-space is:

driver (qcom_geni_serial.c): user-space: ============================ =========== qcom_geni_serial_probe() uart_add_one_port() serial_core_register_port() serial_core_add_one_port() uart_configure_port() register_console() | | open console | … | tty_init_dev() | driver->ports[idx] is NULL | tty_port_register_device_attr_serdev() tty_port_link_device() <- set driver->ports[idx]

Weakness

The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.

Affected Software

Extended Description

A race condition occurs within concurrent environments, and it is effectively a property of a code sequence. Depending on the context, a code sequence may be in the form of a function call, a small number of instructions, a series of program invocations, etc. A race condition violates these properties, which are closely related:

A race condition exists when an “interfering code sequence” can still access the shared resource, violating exclusivity. The interfering code sequence could be “trusted” or “untrusted.” A trusted interfering code sequence occurs within the product; it cannot be modified by the attacker, and it can only be invoked indirectly. An untrusted interfering code sequence can be authored directly by the attacker, and typically it is external to the vulnerable product.

Potential Mitigations

• Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring.
• Additionally, this will minimize the amount of synchronization necessary and may even help to reduce the likelihood of a denial of service where an attacker may be able to repeatedly trigger a critical section (CWE-400).

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/26.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/29.html

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2501c49306238b54a2de0f93de43d50ab6e76c84
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/32f37e57583f869140cff445feedeea8a5fea986