CVE-2026-23348

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

cxl: Fix race of nvdimm_bus object when creating nvdimm objects

Found issue during running of cxl-translate.sh unit test. Adding a 3s sleep right before the test seems to make the issue reproduce fairly consistently. The cxl_translate module has dependency on cxl_acpi and causes orphaned nvdimm objects to reprobe after cxl_acpi is removed. The nvdimm_bus object is registered by the cxl_nvb object when cxl_acpi_probe() is called. With the nvdimm_bus object missing, __nd_device_register() will trigger NULL pointer dereference when accessing the dev->parent that points to &nvdimm_bus->dev.

[ 192.884510] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000006c [ 192.895383] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20250812-19.fc42 08/12/2025 [ 192.897721] Workqueue: cxl_port cxl_bus_rescan_queue [cxl_core] [ 192.899459] RIP: 0010:kobject_get+0xc/0x90 [ 192.924871] Call Trace: [ 192.925959] [ 192.926976] ? pm_runtime_init+0xb9/0xe0 [ 192.929712] __nd_device_register.part.0+0x4d/0xc0 [libnvdimm] [ 192.933314] __nvdimm_create+0x206/0x290 [libnvdimm] [ 192.936662] cxl_nvdimm_probe+0x119/0x1d0 [cxl_pmem] [ 192.940245] cxl_bus_probe+0x1a/0x60 [cxl_core] [ 192.943349] really_probe+0xde/0x380

This patch also relies on the previous change where devm_cxl_add_nvdimm_bridge() is called from drivers/cxl/pmem.c instead of drivers/cxl/core.c to ensure the dependency of cxl_acpi on cxl_pmem.

1. Set probe_type of cxl_nvb to PROBE_FORCE_SYNCHRONOUS to ensure the driver is probed synchronously when add_device() is called.
2. Add a check in __devm_cxl_add_nvdimm_bridge() to ensure that the cxl_nvb driver is attached during cxl_acpi_probe().
3. Take the cxl_root uport_dev lock and the cxl_nvb->dev lock in devm_cxl_add_nvdimm() before checking nvdimm_bus is valid.
4. Set cxl_nvdimm flag to CXL_NVD_F_INVALIDATED so cxl_nvdimm_probe() will exit with -EBUSY.

The removal of cxl_nvdimm devices should prevent any orphaned devices from probing once the nvdimm_bus is gone.

[ dj: Fixed 0-day reported kdoc issue. ] [ dj: Fix cxl_nvb reference leak on error. Gregory (kreview-0811365) ]

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/5b230daeee420833287cc77314439903e5312f10
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5fc4e150c5ada5f7d20d8f9f1b351f10481fbdf7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/96a1fd0d84b17360840f344826897fa71049870e