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

dmaengine: qcom: bam_dma: Fix DT error handling for num-channels/ees

When we don't have a clock specified in the device tree, we have no way to
ensure the BAM is on. This is often the case for remotely-controlled or
remotely-powered BAM instances. In this case, we need to read num-channels
from the DT to have all the necessary information to complete probing.

However, at the moment invalid device trees without clock and without
num-channels still continue probing, because the error handling is missing
return statements. The driver will then later try to read the number of
channels from the registers. This is unsafe, because it relies on boot
firmware and lucky timing to succeed. Unfortunately, the lack of proper
error handling here has been abused for several Qualcomm SoCs upstream,
causing early boot crashes in several situations [1, 2].

Avoid these early crashes by erroring out when any of the required DT
properties are missing. Note that this will break some of the existing DTs
upstream (mainly BAM instances related to the crypto engine). However,
clearly these DTs have never been tested properly, since the error in the
kernel log was just ignored. It's safer to disable the crypto engine for
these broken DTBs.

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/CY01EKQVWE36.B9X5TDXAREPF@fairphone.com/
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230626145959.646747-1-krzysztof.kozlowski@linaro.org/
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 08:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: qcom: bam_dma: Fix DT error handling for num-channels/ees When we don't have a clock specified in the device tree, we have no way to ensure the BAM is on. This is often the case for remotely-controlled or remotely-powered BAM instances. In this case, we need to read num-channels from the DT to have all the necessary information to complete probing. However, at the moment invalid device trees without clock and without num-channels still continue probing, because the error handling is missing return statements. The driver will then later try to read the number of channels from the registers. This is unsafe, because it relies on boot firmware and lucky timing to succeed. Unfortunately, the lack of proper error handling here has been abused for several Qualcomm SoCs upstream, causing early boot crashes in several situations [1, 2]. Avoid these early crashes by erroring out when any of the required DT properties are missing. Note that this will break some of the existing DTs upstream (mainly BAM instances related to the crypto engine). However, clearly these DTs have never been tested properly, since the error in the kernel log was just ignored. It's safer to disable the crypto engine for these broken DTBs. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/CY01EKQVWE36.B9X5TDXAREPF@fairphone.com/ [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230626145959.646747-1-krzysztof.kozlowski@linaro.org/
Title dmaengine: qcom: bam_dma: Fix DT error handling for num-channels/ees
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-10-01T08:07:11.469Z

Reserved: 2025-04-16T07:20:57.147Z

Link: CVE-2025-39923

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2025-10-01T08:15:35.610

Modified: 2025-10-01T08:15:35.610

Link: CVE-2025-39923

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.