CVE-2026-74745
Received Received - Intake

Kernel Deadlock in Broadcom BNXT Ethernet Driver

Publication date: 2026-08-26

Last updated on: 2026-08-26

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: eth: bnxt: avoid deadlock when canceling IRQ affinity notifier Unregistering IRQ affinity notifiers waits for the callback synchronously. bnxt takes the netdev instance lock in the notifier (to restart the queue) and cancels the work under the same lock. This may obviously deadlock. Move the restart to the async service task. The queue restart isn't super time sensitive. Store the new TPH tag, schedule the task. Safely canceling the service task is already ironed out. In bnxt_request_irq() the order of registering notifier, affinity and initial TPH programming has to be inverted. I think it was racy previously since user may trigger an update as soon as notifier is installed. There's a small known gap - if pcie_tph_get_cpu_st() fails at init and the target tag is 0 we may miss programming the entry. This does not seem worth fixing, the code has skip-on-failure all over the place, anyway.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-26
Last Modified
2026-08-26
Generated
2026-08-26
AI Q&A
2026-08-26
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-74745
EUVD
EUVD-2026-66575

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
bnxt linux_kernel *

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel involves a deadlock issue in the Broadcom NetXtreme (bnxt) Ethernet driver. When canceling IRQ affinity notifiers, the driver attempts to unregister them synchronously while holding the netdev instance lock. This can cause a deadlock because the notifier callback also tries to acquire the same lock to restart the queue.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is specific to the Linux kernel's bnxt driver and involves a deadlock scenario during IRQ affinity notifier operations. Detection requires checking kernel logs for bnxt-related deadlock errors or system hangs during network operations. Monitor for messages like 'bnxt deadlock' or 'IRQ affinity notifier' in dmesg output. Commands: dmesg | grep -i bnxt, dmesg | grep -i deadlock, journalctl -k | grep -i bnxt.

Impact Analysis

The deadlock could lead to system hangs or crashes, particularly when network operations are active. This may cause network connectivity issues, application failures, or system instability, requiring a reboot to recover.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply the latest kernel update from your Linux distribution to patch this vulnerability. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling the bnxt driver or restricting network operations until the update is applied. Monitor vendor advisories for bnxt driver updates.

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