Description

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

tty: xilinx_uartps: split sysrq handling

lockdep detects the following circular locking dependency:

CPU 0 CPU 1
========================== ============================
cdns_uart_isr() printk()
uart_port_lock(port) console_lock()
cdns_uart_console_write()
if (!port->sysrq)
uart_port_lock(port)
uart_handle_break()
port->sysrq = ...
uart_handle_sysrq_char()
printk()
console_lock()

The fixed commit attempts to avoid this situation by only taking the
port lock in cdns_uart_console_write if port->sysrq unset. However, if
(as shown above) cdns_uart_console_write runs before port->sysrq is set,
then it will try to take the port lock anyway. This may result in a
deadlock.

Fix this by splitting sysrq handling into two parts. We use the prepare
helper under the port lock and defer handling until we release the lock.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-21820

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux, Linux

Product: Linux, Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.01% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 1.33% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-03-28 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21820
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/de5bd24197bd9ee37ec1e379a3d882bbd15c5065
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8ea0e7b3d7b8f2f0fc9db491ff22a0abe120801c
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b88a7c4584ba67267a051069b8abe44fc9595b2
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4410dba9807a17a93f649a9f5870ceaf30a675a3
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b06f388994500297bb91be60ffaf6825ecfd2afe

Timeline