bus: mhi: pci_generic: Remove WQ_MEM_RECLAIM flag from state workqueue
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bus: mhi: pci_generic: Remove WQ_MEM_RECLAIM flag from state workqueue A recent change created a dedicated workqueue for the state-change work with WQ_HIGHPRI (no strong reason for that) and WQ_MEM_RECLAIM flags, but the state-change work (mhi_pm_st_worker) does not guarantee forward progress under memory pressure, and will even wait on various memory allocations when e.g. creating devices, loading firmware, etc... The work is then not part of a memory reclaim path... Moreover, this causes a warning in check_flush_dependency() since we end up in code that flushes a non-reclaim workqueue: [ 40.969601] workqueue: WQ_MEM_RECLAIM mhi_hiprio_wq:mhi_pm_st_worker [mhi] is flushing !WQ_MEM_RECLAIM events_highpri:flush_backlog [ 40.969612] WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 158 at kernel/workqueue.c:2607 check_flush_dependency+0x11c/0x140 [ 40.969733] Call Trace: [ 40.969740] __flush_work+0x97/0x1d0 [ 40.969745] ? wake_up_process+0x15/0x20 [ 40.969749] ? insert_work+0x70/0x80 [ 40.969750] ? __queue_work+0x14a/0x3e0 [ 40.969753] flush_work+0x10/0x20 [ 40.969756] rollback_registered_many+0x1c9/0x510 [ 40.969759] unregister_netdevice_queue+0x94/0x120 [ 40.969761] unregister_netdev+0x1d/0x30 [ 40.969765] mhi_net_remove+0x1a/0x40 [mhi_net] [ 40.969770] mhi_driver_remove+0x124/0x250 [mhi] [ 40.969776] device_release_driver_internal+0xf0/0x1d0 [ 40.969778] device_release_driver+0x12/0x20 [ 40.969782] bus_remove_device+0xe1/0x150 [ 40.969786] device_del+0x17b/0x3e0 [ 40.969791] mhi_destroy_device+0x9a/0x100 [mhi] [ 40.969796] ? mhi_unmap_single_use_bb+0x50/0x50 [mhi] [ 40.969799] device_for_each_child+0x5e/0xa0 [ 40.969804] mhi_pm_st_worker+0x921/0xf50 [mhi]
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-46970
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-jfx3-f7mg-7cp3
References
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2021-46970 · CVE Program
- CVE-2021-46970 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-jfx3-f7mg-7cp3 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2021-46970 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences