High · published August 28, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
char: tlclk: fix use-after-free in tlclk_cleanup()
This patch improves the module cleanup process in the tlclk driver to
prevent potential use-after-free and race conditions.
Currently, the file_operations structure does not specify the .owner
field, which could allow the module to be unloaded while user-space
processes are still interacting with the device. Additionally, the
tlclk_cleanup() function frees the alarm_events memory before ensuring
that blocked processes in the waitqueue are fully awakened and that the
switchover_timer has completed.
To address these cases, this patch:
- Sets '.owner = THIS_MODULE' in tlclk_fops to safely defer module
unloading while the device is in use.
- Updates tlclk_cleanup() to explicitly wake up all blocked readers
(wake_up_all), properly release hardware I/O regions, and safely
delete the timer (timer_delete_sync) prior to freeing memory.