published October 15, 2025
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
media: b2c2: Fix use-after-free causing by irq_check_work in flexcop_pci_remove
The original code uses cancel_delayed_work() in flexcop_pci_remove(), which
does not guarantee that the delayed work item irq_check_work has fully
completed if it was already running. This leads to use-after-free scenarios
where flexcop_pci_remove() may free the flexcop_device while irq_check_work
is still active and attempts to dereference the device.
A typical race condition is illustrated below:
CPU 0 (remove) | CPU 1 (delayed work callback)
flexcop_pci_remove() | flexcop_pci_irq_check_work()
cancel_delayed_work() |
flexcop_device_kfree(fc_pci->fc_dev) |
| fc = fc_pci->fc_dev; // UAF
This is confirmed by a KASAN report:
==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __run_timer_base.part.0+0x7d7/0x8c0
Write of size 8 at addr ffff8880093aa8c8 by task bash/135
...
Call Trace:
<IRQ>
dump_stack_lvl+0x55/0x70
print_report+0xcf/0x610
? __run_timer_base.part.0+0x7d7/0x8c0
kasan_report+0xb8/0xf0
? __run_timer_base.part.0+0x7d7/0x8c0
__run_timer_base.part.0+0x7d7/0x8c0
? __pfx___run_timer_base.part.0+0x10/0x10
? __pfx_read_tsc+0x10/0x10
? ktime_get+0x60/0x140
? lapic_next_event+0x11/0x20
? clockevents_program_event+0x1d4/0x2a0
run_timer_softirq+0xd1/0x190
handle_softirqs+0x16a/0x550
irq_exit_rcu+0xaf/0xe0
sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x70/0x80
</IRQ>
...
Allocated by task 1:
kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50
kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
__kasan_kmalloc+0x7f/0x90
__kmalloc_noprof+0x1be/0x460
flexcop_device_kmalloc+0x54/0xe0
flexcop_pci_probe+0x1f/0x9d0
local_pci_probe+0xdc/0x190
pci_device_probe+0x2fe/0x470
really_probe+0x1ca/0x5c0
__driver_probe_device+0x248/0x310
driver_probe_device+0x44/0x120
__driver_attach+0xd2/0x310
bus_for_each_dev+0xed/0x170
bus_add_driver+0x208/0x500
driver_register+0x132/0x460
do_one_initcall+0x89/0x300
kernel_init_freeable+0x40d/0x720
kernel_init+0x1a/0x150
ret_from_fork+0x10c/0x1a0
ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
Freed by task 135:
kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50
kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
kasan_save_free_info+0x3a/0x60
__kasan_slab_free+0x3f/0x50
kfree+0x137/0x370
flexcop_device_kfree+0x32/0x50
pci_device_remove+0xa6/0x1d0
device_release_driver_internal+0xf8/0x210
pci_stop_bus_device+0x105/0x150
pci_stop_and_remove_bus_device_locked+0x15/0x30
remove_store+0xcc/0xe0
kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x2c3/0x440
vfs_write+0x871/0xd70
ksys_write+0xee/0x1c0
do_syscall_64+0xac/0x280
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
...
Replace cancel_delayed_work() with cancel_delayed_work_sync() to ensure
that the delayed work item is properly canceled and any executing delayed
work has finished before the device memory is deallocated.
This bug was initially identified through static analysis. To reproduce
and test it, I simulated the B2C2 FlexCop PCI device in QEMU and introduced
artificial delays within the flexcop_pci_irq_check_work() function to
increase the likelihood of triggering the bug.