published August 22, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
serial: 8250_of: clear stuck empty-FIFO RX-timeout on LPC32xx
The NXP LPC32xx UART (PORT_LPC3220) can latch an RX character-timeout
interrupt while the RX FIFO is empty: IIR reports UART_IIR_RX_TIMEOUT
(0x0c) but LSR.DR is clear. A character timeout is only cleared by
reading RHR, but serial8250_rx_chars() reads RHR only when LSR.DR is
set, so nothing ever clears the condition. The interrupt is
level-triggered and re-fires immediately, so on a single-core ARM926
the resulting interrupt storm livelocks the CPU.
It is reproducible when userspace repeatedly opens the front-panel port
(ttyS1): serial8250_do_set_termios() re-enables interrupts on unlock and
the handler then spins forever with iir=0xcc lsr=0x60 ier=0x05, tripping
the soft-lockup detector in serial8250_handle_irq_locked().
LPC32xx has no dedicated 8250 glue driver, it's driven by the generic
8250_of. Add a hardware specific handle_irq for PORT_LPC3220, wired up
in of_platform_serial_setup() the same way fsl8250_handle_irq is
installed. The handler follows dw8250_handle_irq(): on an RX timeout
with an empty FIFO (LSR.DR and LSR.BI clear) it does one throwaway RHR
read to clear the condition, then calls serial8250_handle_irq_locked().
No real received data is ever discarded, and it is a no-op on healthy
UARTs which never report a timeout with DR clear.
This is the same class of bug already worked around in other 8250 drivers;
see commit 424d79183af0 ("serial: 8250_dw: Avoid "too much work" from bogus rx timeout interrupt")
which reports the identical iir=0xcc/lsr=0x60. See also
UART_RX_TIMEOUT_QUIRK in 8250_omap, and the note in 8250_bcm7271.