In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tick/broadcast: Plug clockevents replacement race 朱恺乾 reported and decoded the following race condition when a broadcast device is replaced: CPUA CPUB __tick_bro…

Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tick/broadcast: Plug clockevents replacement race

朱恺乾 reported and decoded the following race condition when a broadcast device is replaced:

CPUA CPUB __tick_broadcast_oneshot_control() bc = tick_broadcast_device.evtdev; tick_install_broadcast_device(dev) clockevents_exchange_device(cur, dev) shutdown(cur); detach(cur); cur->handler = noop; tick_broadcast_device.evtdev = dev;

tick_broadcast_set_event(bc, next_event); <- FAIL: arms a detached device.

If the original broadcast device has a restricted interrupt affinity mask and the last CPU in that mask goes offline then the BUG() in tick_cleanup_dead_cpu() triggers because the clockevent device is not in detached state.

The reason for this is that tick_install_broadcast_device() is not serialized vs. tick broadcast operations.

The obvious cure is to serialize tick_install_broadcast_device() with tick_broadcast_lock against a concurrent tick broadcast operation.

That requires to split clockevents_exchange_device() into two parts, one which does the exchange, shutdown and detach operation and the other which drops the module reference count. This is required because the module reference cannot be dropped while holding tick_broadcast_lock.

Let clockevents_exchange_device() do both operations as before, but let the broadcast device code take the two step approach and do the device exchange under tick_broadcast_lock and drop the module reference count after releasing it.

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

Vendor advisories

• Red Hat VEX · Moderate · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, … · updated 2026-10-17 · vex