Bug 2439871 (CVE-2026-23115)

Summary: CVE-2026-23115 kernel: serial: Fix not set tty->port race condition
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-02-14 16:02:40 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

serial: Fix not set tty->port race condition

Revert commit bfc467db60b7 ("serial: remove redundant
tty_port_link_device()") because the tty_port_link_device() is not
redundant: the tty->port has to be confured before we call
uart_configure_port(), otherwise user-space can open console without TTY
linked to the driver.

This tty_port_link_device() was added explicitly to avoid this exact
issue in commit fb2b90014d78 ("tty: link tty and port before configuring
it as console"), so offending commit basically reverted the fix saying
it is redundant without addressing the actual race condition presented
there.

Reproducible always as tty->port warning on Qualcomm SoC with most of
devices disabled, so with very fast boot, and one serial device being
the console:

  printk: legacy console [ttyMSM0] enabled
  printk: legacy console [ttyMSM0] enabled
  printk: legacy bootconsole [qcom_geni0] disabled
  printk: legacy bootconsole [qcom_geni0] disabled
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  tty_init_dev: ttyMSM driver does not set tty->port. This would crash the kernel. Fix the driver!
  WARNING: drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1414 at tty_init_dev.part.0+0x228/0x25c, CPU#2: systemd/1
  Modules linked in: socinfo tcsrcc_eliza gcc_eliza sm3_ce fuse ipv6
  CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Tainted: G S                  6.19.0-rc4-next-20260108-00024-g2202f4d30aa8 #73 PREEMPT
  Tainted: [S]=CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC
  Hardware name: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Eliza (DT)
  ...
  tty_init_dev.part.0 (drivers/tty/tty_io.c:1414 (discriminator 11)) (P)
  tty_open (arch/arm64/include/asm/atomic_ll_sc.h:95 (discriminator 3) drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2073 (discriminator 3) drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2120 (discriminator 3))
  chrdev_open (fs/char_dev.c:411)
  do_dentry_open (fs/open.c:962)
  vfs_open (fs/open.c:1094)
  do_open (fs/namei.c:4634)
  path_openat (fs/namei.c:4793)
  do_filp_open (fs/namei.c:4820)
  do_sys_openat2 (fs/open.c:1391 (discriminator 3))
  ...
  Starting Network Name Resolution...

Apparently the flow with this small Yocto-based ramdisk user-space is:

driver (qcom_geni_serial.c):                  user-space:
============================                  ===========
qcom_geni_serial_probe()
 uart_add_one_port()
  serial_core_register_port()
   serial_core_add_one_port()
    uart_configure_port()
     register_console()
    |
    |                                         open console
    |                                          ...
    |                                          tty_init_dev()
    |                                           driver->ports[idx] is NULL
    |
    tty_port_register_device_attr_serdev()
     tty_port_link_device() <- set driver->ports[idx]