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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2021-46941 json

usb: dwc3: core: Do core softreset when switch mode

published 2024-02-27 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33589

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 13%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

usb: dwc3: core: Do core softreset when switch mode

According to the programming guide, to switch mode for DRD controller, the driver needs to do the following.

To switch from device to host: 1. Reset controller with GCTL.CoreSoftReset 2. Set GCTL.PrtCapDir(host mode) 3. Reset the host with USBCMD.HCRESET 4. Then follow up with the initializing host registers sequence

To switch from host to device: 1. Reset controller with GCTL.CoreSoftReset 2. Set GCTL.PrtCapDir(device mode) 3. Reset the device with DCTL.CSftRst 4. Then follow up with the initializing registers sequence

Currently we're missing step 1) to do GCTL.CoreSoftReset and step 3) of switching from host to device. John Stult reported a lockup issue seen with HiKey960 platform without these steps[1]. Similar issue is observed with Ferry's testing platform[2].

So, apply the required steps along with some fixes to Yu Chen's and John Stultz's version. The main fixes to their versions are the missing wait for clocks synchronization before clearing GCTL.CoreSoftReset and only apply DCTL.CSftRst when switching from host to device.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-usb/20210108015115.27920-1-john.stultz@linaro.org/ [2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-usb/0ba7a6ba-e6a7-9cd4-0695-64fc927e01f1@gmail.com/

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.36, 5.11.20, 5.12.3, 5.13
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.10.38-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46941

  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5 +2 more 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 4.12.14-122.216.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.182.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:1870-1SUSE-SU-2024:1646-1SUSE-SU-2024:1643-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-46941 updated cvss 4.4

kernel: usb: dwc3: core: Do core softreset when switch mode

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 13% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.