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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.7

CVE-2026-23167 json

nfc: nci: Fix race between rfkill and nci_unregister_device().

published 2026-02-14 8 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2026-5871

cvss
4.7
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 0%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

nfc: nci: Fix race between rfkill and nci_unregister_device().

syzbot reported the splat below [0] without a repro.

It indicates that struct nci_dev.cmd_wq had been destroyed before nci_close_device() was called via rfkill.

nci_dev.cmd_wq is only destroyed in nci_unregister_device(), which (I think) was called from virtual_ncidev_close() when syzbot close()d an fd of virtual_ncidev.

The problem is that nci_unregister_device() destroys nci_dev.cmd_wq first and then calls nfc_unregister_device(), which removes the device from rfkill by rfkill_unregister().

So, the device is still visible via rfkill even after nci_dev.cmd_wq is destroyed.

Let's unregister the device from rfkill first in nci_unregister_device().

Note that we cannot call nfc_unregister_device() before nci_close_device() because

1) nfc_unregister_device() calls device_del() which frees all memory allocated by devm_kzalloc() and linked to ndev->conn_info_list

2) nci_rx_work() could try to queue nci_conn_info to ndev->conn_info_list which could be leaked

Thus, nfc_unregister_device() is split into two functions so we can remove rfkill interfaces only before nci_close_device().

[0]: DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(1) WARNING: kernel/locking/lockdep.c:238 at hlock_class kernel/locking/lockdep.c:238 [inline], CPU#0: syz.0.8675/6349 WARNING: kernel/locking/lockdep.c:238 at check_wait_context kernel/locking/lockdep.c:4854 [inline], CPU#0: syz.0.8675/6349 WARNING: kernel/locking/lockdep.c:238 at __lock_acquire+0x39d/0x2cf0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5187, CPU#0: syz.0.8675/6349 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6349 Comm: syz.0.8675 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/13/2026 RIP: 0010:hlock_class kernel/locking/lockdep.c:238 [inline] RIP: 0010:check_wait_context kernel/locking/lockdep.c:4854 [inline] RIP: 0010:__lock_acquire+0x3a4/0x2cf0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5187 Code: 18 00 4c 8b 74 24 08 75 27 90 e8 17 f2 fc 02 85 c0 74 1c 83 3d 50 e0 4e 0e 00 75 13 48 8d 3d 43 f7 51 0e 48 c7 c6 8b 3a de 8d <67> 48 0f b9 3a 90 31 c0 0f b6 98 c4 00 00 00 41 8b 45 20 25 ff 1f RSP: 0018:ffffc9000c767680 EFLAGS: 00010046 RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: 0000000000040000 RCX: 0000000000080000 RDX: ffffc90013080000 RSI: ffffffff8dde3a8b RDI: ffffffff8ff24ca0 RBP: 0000000000000003 R08: ffffffff8fef35a3 R09: 1ffffffff1fde6b4 R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffffbfff1fde6b5 R12: 00000000000012a2 R13: ffff888030338ba8 R14: ffff888030338000 R15: ffff888030338b30 FS: 00007fa5995f66c0(0000) GS:ffff8881256f8000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f7e72f842d0 CR3: 00000000485a0000 CR4: 00000000003526f0 Call Trace: <TASK> lock_acquire+0x106/0x330 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5868 touch_wq_lockdep_map+0xcb/0x180 kernel/workqueue.c:3940 __flush_workqueue+0x14b/0x14f0 kernel/workqueue.c:3982 nci_close_device+0x302/0x630 net/nfc/nci/core.c:567 nci_dev_down+0x3b/0x50 net/nfc/nci/core.c:639 nfc_dev_down+0x152/0x290 net/nfc/core.c:161 nfc_rfkill_set_block+0x2d/0x100 net/nfc/core.c:179 rfkill_set_block+0x1d2/0x440 net/rfkill/core.c:346 rfkill_fop_write+0x461/0x5a0 net/rfkill/core.c:1301 vfs_write+0x29a/0xb90 fs/read_write.c:684 ksys_write+0x150/0x270 fs/read_write.c:738 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xe2/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fa59b39acb9 Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 e8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fa5995f6028 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fa59b615fa0 RCX: 00007fa59b39acb9 RDX: 0000000000000008 RSI: 0000200000000080 RDI: 0000000000000007 RBP: 00007fa59b408bf7 R08: ---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.249, 5.15.199, 6.1.162, 6.6.123, 6.12.69, 6.18.9, 6.19
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.162-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.69-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.18.9-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23167

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-176.186
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-117.117
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1105.112
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1055.58
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1105.114
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1058.61
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1101.107
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1054.60

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23167

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1
  • kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.34.1.150700.17.23.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:1081-1SUSE-SU-2026:20873-1SUSE-SU-2026:20838-1SUSE-SU-2026:20931-1SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.27.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20416-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.126.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-77715

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-23167 updated

kernel: nfc: nci: Fix race between rfkill and nci_unregister_device()

  • 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 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    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

Exploit prediction

0.10% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 0% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization
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.