Executive Summary

This vulnerability relates to the Linux kernel's iwlwifi driver for Intel wireless devices. A recent kernel commit requires that PTP (Precision Time Protocol) clocks registered via ptp_clock_register must have the settime64 operation implemented. However, the MVM and MLD PTP clock implementations in iwlwifi do not implement this settime64 function, causing warnings and failures when the PTP clock tries to register.

To address this, instead of implementing the actual settime64 functionality (which lacks a suitable firmware interface), a stub function was created that simply returns an error code (-EOPTNOTSUPP). This suppresses the warning and allows the PTP clock to register successfully without providing full settime64 support.

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Impact Analysis

The impact of this vulnerability is primarily related to system warnings and the inability to fully register the PTP clock for Intel wireless devices using the iwlwifi driver. Without the stub fix, users may see warnings during interface startup and the PTP clock registration may fail.

Functionally, this means that precise time synchronization features relying on the PTP clock might not work correctly or be available on affected devices. However, since the fix involves a stub that suppresses warnings and allows registration, the impact is mitigated but the full settime64 functionality remains unsupported.

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Compliance Impact

I don't know

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability can be detected by observing warning messages related to the PTP clock registration in the system logs when the iwlwifi interface starts up.

• Check system logs for warnings similar to: "WARNING: drivers/ptp/ptp_clock.c:325 at ptp_clock_register+0x2c8/0x6b8, CPU#1: wpa_supplicant/469"
• Look for messages like: "iwlwifi 0000:01:00.0: Failed to register PHC clock (-22)"

You can use commands such as 'dmesg | grep ptp_clock_register' or 'journalctl -k | grep iwlwifi' to find these warnings in kernel logs.

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Mitigation Strategies

The vulnerability has been resolved by implementing a stub for the settime64 function in the iwlwifi MVM/MLD PTP clock implementation that suppresses the warning and allows the PTP clock to be registered.

Immediate mitigation involves updating the Linux kernel to a version that includes the commit dfb073d32cac or later, which contains this fix.

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