CVE-2026-93202 PUBLISHED

i3c: master: Fix recursive locking during device registration

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 17.09.2026 Published: 17.09.2026 Updated: 17.09.2026

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

i3c: master: Fix recursive locking during device registration

i3c_master_register_new_i3c_devs() registers newly discovered devices while holding i3c_bus_normaluse_lock(), a down_read(). device_register() can immediately probe the device, and probe callbacks typically invoke I3C helpers that take i3c_bus_normaluse_lock() again, leading to a recursive acquisition of the same rwsem. rwsems do not support recursive read locking and can deadlock when a writer is waiting. See the "Recursive read locks" section of Documentation/locking/lockdep-design.rst.

For example, with Intel LPSS I3C, LOCKDEP generates a WARNING like: # echo intel-lpss-i3c.0 > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/mipi-i3c-hci/unbind # echo intel-lpss-i3c.0 > /sys/bus/platform/drivers/mipi-i3c-hci/bind WARNING: possible recursive locking detected kworker/5:1/94 is trying to acquire lock: ffff88811c810d78 (&i3cbus->lock){++++}-{4:4}, at: i3c_device_match_id+0x45/0x370 but task is already holding lock: ffff88811c810d78 (&i3cbus->lock){++++}-{4:4}, at: i3c_master_reg_work_fn+0x21/0x5f0

Fix this by separating device creation from device registration. Populate desc->dev under the maintenance lock, collect the devices that still need registration into a local list, then release the lock before calling device_register(). Finally retake the lock and clean up any devices that failed to register.

Use the maintenance lock rather than the normal-use lock while adding device objects. A write-side maintenance lock prevents readers from observing a partially initialized desc->dev during initial device population, or desc->dev disappearing if registration fails.

The local list requires a list node, so add a list node member to struct i3c_device.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 3a379bbcea0af6280e1ca0d1edfcf4e68cde6ee0 to b25232f66e8cd653d0c6bfdbe534e62a2f9d6a1b (excl.)
  • affected from 3a379bbcea0af6280e1ca0d1edfcf4e68cde6ee0 to 9dc73c51ed3ee965c3ddb0ac31cf5c3eea68fa0c (excl.)
  • affected from 3a379bbcea0af6280e1ca0d1edfcf4e68cde6ee0 to 456f832e5fc26fbfd3b8200fd4553eee520cc377 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.0 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.0 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.52 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.6 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc1 to * (incl.)

References