Bug 2461525 (CVE-2026-31656) - CVE-2026-31656 kernel: drm/i915/gt: fix refcount underflow in intel_engine_park_heartbeat
Summary: CVE-2026-31656 kernel: drm/i915/gt: fix refcount underflow in intel_engine_pa...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-31656
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-04-24 15:06 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-09-14 13:35 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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Red Hat Product Errata RHSA-2026:67150 0 None None None 2026-09-14 13:35:31 UTC

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-04-24 15:06:34 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

drm/i915/gt: fix refcount underflow in intel_engine_park_heartbeat

A use-after-free / refcount underflow is possible when the heartbeat
worker and intel_engine_park_heartbeat() race to release the same
engine->heartbeat.systole request.

The heartbeat worker reads engine->heartbeat.systole and calls
i915_request_put() on it when the request is complete, but clears
the pointer in a separate, non-atomic step. Concurrently, a request
retirement on another CPU can drop the engine wakeref to zero, triggering
__engine_park() -> intel_engine_park_heartbeat(). If the heartbeat
timer is pending at that point, cancel_delayed_work() returns true and
intel_engine_park_heartbeat() reads the stale non-NULL systole pointer
and calls i915_request_put() on it again, causing a refcount underflow:

```
<4> [487.221889] Workqueue: i915-unordered engine_retire [i915]
<4> [487.222640] RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x68/0xb0
...
<4> [487.222707] Call Trace:
<4> [487.222711]  <TASK>
<4> [487.222716]  intel_engine_park_heartbeat.part.0+0x6f/0x80 [i915]
<4> [487.223115]  intel_engine_park_heartbeat+0x25/0x40 [i915]
<4> [487.223566]  __engine_park+0xb9/0x650 [i915]
<4> [487.223973]  ____intel_wakeref_put_last+0x2e/0xb0 [i915]
<4> [487.224408]  __intel_wakeref_put_last+0x72/0x90 [i915]
<4> [487.224797]  intel_context_exit_engine+0x7c/0x80 [i915]
<4> [487.225238]  intel_context_exit+0xf1/0x1b0 [i915]
<4> [487.225695]  i915_request_retire.part.0+0x1b9/0x530 [i915]
<4> [487.226178]  i915_request_retire+0x1c/0x40 [i915]
<4> [487.226625]  engine_retire+0x122/0x180 [i915]
<4> [487.227037]  process_one_work+0x239/0x760
<4> [487.227060]  worker_thread+0x200/0x3f0
<4> [487.227068]  ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
<4> [487.227075]  kthread+0x10d/0x150
<4> [487.227083]  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
<4> [487.227092]  ret_from_fork+0x3d4/0x480
<4> [487.227099]  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
<4> [487.227107]  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
<4> [487.227141]  </TASK>
```

Fix this by replacing the non-atomic pointer read + separate clear with
xchg() in both racing paths. xchg() is a single indivisible hardware
instruction that atomically reads the old pointer and writes NULL. This
guarantees only one of the two concurrent callers obtains the non-NULL
pointer and performs the put, the other gets NULL and skips it.

(cherry picked from commit 13238dc0ee4f9ab8dafa2cca7295736191ae2f42)

Comment 5 Jon Orris 2026-09-14 13:35:31 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Via RHSA-2026:67150 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:67150


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