Bug 2521377 (CVE-2026-74654)

Summary: CVE-2026-74654 kernel: serial: 8250_dma: Clear stale RX state on shutdown
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's 8250_dma serial driver. When a serial port is closed while an RX (receive) transfer is active, a stale state can persist where the `rx_running` flag remains set even though the receive channel is no longer available. If the port is subsequently reopened, a specific workaround function attempts to flush the receive data using a null channel, leading to a kernel Oops. This vulnerability could allow a local attacker to cause a denial of service by crashing the system.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-22 15:42:32 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

serial: 8250_dma: Clear stale RX state on shutdown

serial8250_release_dma() terminates RX DMA and releases the channel, but
leaves rx_running set.  If the port is closed while an RX transfer is
active, the stale state remains while rxchan is NULL until the channel is
requested again on the next open.

The DesignWare BUSY workaround added by commit a7b9ce39fbe4
("serial: 8250_dw: Ensure BUSY is deasserted") calls
serial8250_rx_dma_flush() from the LCR write path during startup.  This
happens before serial8250_request_dma() obtains a new RX channel.  On
reopen, the stale rx_running state therefore makes the flush path pass a
NULL channel to dmaengine_pause(), causing a kernel Oops.

Clear rx_running after terminating RX DMA, matching the TX cleanup.  Also
make the flush helper return if the DMA object or RX channel is not
available so startup and teardown paths cannot pass a NULL channel to the
DMAengine API.