CVE-2024-53190

wifi: rtlwifi: Drastically reduce the attempts to read efuse in case of failures

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: December 27, 2024 at 01:49 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 08:08 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: rtlwifi: Drastically reduce the attempts to read efuse in case of failures Syzkaller reported a hung task with uevent_show() on stack trace. That specific issue was addressed by another commit [0], but even with that fix applied (for example, running v6.12-rc5) we face another type of hung task that comes from the same reproducer [1]. By investigating that, we could narrow it to the following path: (a) Syzkaller emulates a Realtek USB WiFi adapter using raw-gadget and dummy_hcd infrastructure. (b) During the probe of rtl8192cu, the driver ends-up performing an efuse read procedure (which is related to EEPROM load IIUC), and here lies the issue: the function read_efuse() calls read_efuse_byte() many times, as loop iterations depending on the efuse size (in our example, 512 in total). This procedure for reading efuse bytes relies in a loop that performs an I/O read up to *10k* times in case of failures. We measured the time of the loop inside read_efuse_byte() alone, and in this reproducer (which involves the dummy_hcd emulation layer), it takes 15 seconds each. As a consequence, we have the driver stuck in its probe routine for big time, exposing a stack trace like below if we attempt to reboot the system, for example: task:kworker/0:3 state:D stack:0 pid:662 tgid:662 ppid:2 flags:0x00004000 Workqueue: usb_hub_wq hub_event Call Trace: __schedule+0xe22/0xeb6 schedule_timeout+0xe7/0x132 __wait_for_common+0xb5/0x12e usb_start_wait_urb+0xc5/0x1ef ? usb_alloc_urb+0x95/0xa4 usb_control_msg+0xff/0x184 _usbctrl_vendorreq_sync+0xa0/0x161 _usb_read_sync+0xb3/0xc5 read_efuse_byte+0x13c/0x146 read_efuse+0x351/0x5f0 efuse_read_all_map+0x42/0x52 rtl_efuse_shadow_map_update+0x60/0xef rtl_get_hwinfo+0x5d/0x1c2 rtl92cu_read_eeprom_info+0x10a/0x8d5 ? rtl92c_read_chip_version+0x14f/0x17e rtl_usb_probe+0x323/0x851 usb_probe_interface+0x278/0x34b really_probe+0x202/0x4a4 __driver_probe_device+0x166/0x1b2 driver_probe_device+0x2f/0xd8 [...] We propose hereby to drastically reduce the attempts of doing the I/O reads in case of failures, restricted to USB devices (given that they're inherently slower than PCIe ones). By retrying up to 10 times (instead of 10000), we got reponsiveness in the reproducer, while seems reasonable to believe that there's no sane USB device implementation in the field requiring this amount of retries at every I/O read in order to properly work. Based on that assumption, it'd be good to have it backported to stable but maybe not since driver implementation (the 10k number comes from day 0), perhaps up to 6.x series makes sense. [0] Commit 15fffc6a5624 ("driver core: Fix uevent_show() vs driver detach race") [1] A note about that: this syzkaller report presents multiple reproducers that differs by the type of emulated USB device. For this specific case, check the entry from 2024/08/08 06:23 in the list of crashes; the C repro is available at https://syzkaller.appspot.com/text?tag=ReproC&x=1521fc83980000.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

2.6.38 ≤ v < 6.1.1202.6.38 ≤ v < 6.11.112.6.38 ≤ v < 6.12.22.6.38 ≤ v < 6.132.6.38 ≤ v < 6.6.646.12 ≤ v < 6.12.26.2 ≤ v < 6.6.646.7 ≤ v < 6.11.110c8173385e549f95cd80c3fff5aab87b4f881d8d2.6.38
Vendor states this is fixed in 5c1b544563005a00591a3aa86ecff62ed4d11be3 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 8f3551f67991652c83469c7dd51d7b9b187b265f (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in ac064c656f105b9122bc43991a170f95f72b7a43 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in c386fb76f01794f1023d01a6ec5f5c93d00acd3b (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in eeb0b9b9e66b0b54cdad8e1c1cf0f55e8ba4211c (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2.6.38 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.120 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.11.11 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.2 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.13 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.64 (unaffected)

References (6)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5c1b544563005a00591a3aa86ecff62ed4d11be3
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8f3551f67991652c83469c7dd51d7b9b187b265f
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac064c656f105b9122bc43991a170f95f72b7a43
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c386fb76f01794f1023d01a6ec5f5c93d00acd3b
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eeb0b9b9e66b0b54cdad8e1c1cf0f55e8ba4211c
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00001.html

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.5MEDIUMCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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