published August 15, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
firmware_loader: Fix recursive lock in device_cache_fw_images()
A recursive locking deadlock can occur in the firmware loader's power
management notification handler.
During system suspend or hibernation preparation, fw_pm_notify() calls
device_cache_fw_images(). This function acquires fw_lock to set the
firmware cache state to FW_LOADER_START_CACHE and then iterates over all
devices using dpm_for_each_dev() while still holding the lock.
For each device, dev_cache_fw_image() schedules asynchronous work to cache
the firmware. If memory allocation for the async work entry fails (e.g., in
out-of-memory conditions), async_schedule_node_domain() falls back to
executing the work function synchronously in the current thread.
The synchronous execution path (__async_dev_cache_fw_image() ->
cache_firmware() -> request_firmware() -> assign_fw()) attempts to acquire
fw_lock again. Since the current thread already holds fw_lock, this results
in a recursive locking deadlock.
Fix this by releasing fw_lock immediately after updating the cache state
and before calling dpm_for_each_dev(). The lock is only needed to protect
the state update. Concurrent firmware requests will correctly see the
FW_LOADER_START_CACHE state and use the piggyback mechanism, which is
independently protected by its own fwc->name_lock.