CVE-2026-89589
Received
Received - Intake
Deadlock in Linux Kernel CXL CPER Work Lock Handling
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-89589, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-09-11
Last updated on: 2026-09-21
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
acpi/apei/ghes: Use raw_spinlock_t for CXL CPER work locks
The CXL CPER work registration and unregistration helpers acquire
cxl_cper_work_lock and cxl_cper_prot_err_work_lock with a spinlock
guard(), which leaves local interrupts enabled. The corresponding post
paths (cxl_cper_post_event(), cxl_cper_post_prot_err()) execute in hard
IRQ context (they are called from the GHES error notification path) and
acquire the same locks with an irqsave guard().
If a CPU is holding one of these locks via a spinlock guard() when a GHES
interrupt arrives on the same CPU, the IRQ handler spins on the held lock
waiting for it to release, while the lock holder is preempted by the IRQ.
The result is a deadlock.
Convert both locks from spinlock_t to raw_spinlock_t and use guard() at
all call sites. On PREEMPT_RT kernels spinlock_t is backed by rt_mutex and
sleeping from hard IRQ context is not permitted; raw_spinlock_t is safe in
both contexts.
Add WARN_ONCE to both register functions to surface double-registration
bugs at runtime.
Restructure both unregister functions to clear the global work pointer
under the lock before calling cancel_work_sync(), closing the window
where a CPER interrupt could schedule work on a pointer about to be
freed. Add kfifo_reset() after cancel_work_sync() so stale entries
are not replayed on next module load.
Both kfifos are single-consumer: only one work_struct is registered at
a time, enforced by the WARN_ONCE guard in the register functions.
kfifo_reset() is safe outside the lock because cancel_work_sync() has
already quiesced the consumer, and no new consumer can register until
the current module exit completes and a fresh module init runs.
Remove the redundant cancel_work_sync() call from cxl_ras_exit() and
cxl_pci_driver_exit(). The CPER unregister functions now quiesce
the work internally.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
