Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
Unscored CVE-2021-47349 EUVD-2021-34354GHSA-x5fc-mwch-j73r

mwifiex: bring down link before deleting interface

Published May 21, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

mwifiex: bring down link before deleting interface

We can deadlock when rmmod'ing the driver or going through firmware
reset, because the cfg80211_unregister_wdev() has to bring down the link
for us, ... which then grab the same wiphy lock.

nl80211_del_interface() already handles a very similar case, with a nice
description:

/*
* We hold RTNL, so this is safe, without RTNL opencount cannot
* reach 0, and thus the rdev cannot be deleted.
*
* We need to do it for the dev_close(), since that will call
* the netdev notifiers, and we need to acquire the mutex there
* but don't know if we get there from here or from some other
* place (e.g. "ip link set ... down").
*/
mutex_unlock(&rdev->wiphy.mtx);
...

Do similarly for mwifiex teardown, by ensuring we bring the link down
first.

Sample deadlock trace:

[ 247.103516] INFO: task rmmod:2119 blocked for more than 123 seconds.
[ 247.110630] Not tainted 5.12.4 #5
[ 247.115796] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
[ 247.124557] task:rmmod state:D stack: 0 pid: 2119 ppid: 2114 flags:0x00400208
[ 247.133905] Call trace:
[ 247.136644] __switch_to+0x130/0x170
[ 247.140643] __schedule+0x714/0xa0c
[ 247.144548] schedule_preempt_disabled+0x88/0xf4
[ 247.149714] __mutex_lock_common+0x43c/0x750
[ 247.154496] mutex_lock_nested+0x5c/0x68
[ 247.158884] cfg80211_netdev_notifier_call+0x280/0x4e0 [cfg80211]
[ 247.165769] raw_notifier_call_chain+0x4c/0x78
[ 247.170742] call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0x68/0xa4
[ 247.176305] __dev_close_many+0x7c/0x138
[ 247.180693] dev_close_many+0x7c/0x10c
[ 247.184893] unregister_netdevice_many+0xfc/0x654
[ 247.190158] unregister_netdevice_queue+0xb4/0xe0
[ 247.195424] _cfg80211_unregister_wdev+0xa4/0x204 [cfg80211]
[ 247.201816] cfg80211_unregister_wdev+0x20/0x2c [cfg80211]
[ 247.208016] mwifiex_del_virtual_intf+0xc8/0x188 [mwifiex]
[ 247.214174] mwifiex_uninit_sw+0x158/0x1b0 [mwifiex]
[ 247.219747] mwifiex_remove_card+0x38/0xa0 [mwifiex]
[ 247.225316] mwifiex_pcie_remove+0xd0/0xe0 [mwifiex_pcie]
[ 247.231451] pci_device_remove+0x50/0xe0
[ 247.235849] device_release_driver_internal+0x110/0x1b0
[ 247.241701] driver_detach+0x5c/0x9c
[ 247.245704] bus_remove_driver+0x84/0xb8
[ 247.250095] driver_unregister+0x3c/0x60
[ 247.254486] pci_unregister_driver+0x2c/0x90
[ 247.259267] cleanup_module+0x18/0xcdc [mwifiex_pcie]

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.12 5.12.18

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +20 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +26 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —

References