In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv4: ip_tunnel: Fix suspicious RCU usage warning in ip_tunnel_find() The per-netns IP tunnel hash table is protected by the RTNL mutex and ip_tunnel_find() is only called from the control path where the mutex is taken. Add a lockdep expression to hlist_for_each_entry_rcu() in ip_tunnel_find() in order to validate that the mutex is held and to silence the suspicious RCU usage warning [1]. [1] WARNING: suspicious RCU usage 6.12.0-rc3-custom-gd95d9a31aceb #139 Not tainted ----------------------------- net/ipv4/ip_tunnel.c:221 RCU-list traversed in non-reader section!! other info that might help us debug this: rcu_scheduler_active = 2, debug_locks = 1 1 lock held by ip/362: #0: ffffffff86fc7cb0 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x377/0xf60 stack backtrace: CPU: 12 UID: 0 PID: 362 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.12.0-rc3-custom-gd95d9a31aceb #139 Hardware name: Bochs Bochs, BIOS Bochs 01/01/2011 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0xba/0x110 lockdep_rcu_suspicious.cold+0x4f/0xd6 ip_tunnel_find+0x435/0x4d0 ip_tunnel_newlink+0x517/0x7a0 ipgre_newlink+0x14c/0x170 __rtnl_newlink+0x1173/0x19c0 rtnl_newlink+0x6c/0xa0 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x3cc/0xf60 netlink_rcv_skb+0x171/0x450 netlink_unicast+0x539/0x7f0 netlink_sendmsg+0x8c1/0xd80 ____sys_sendmsg+0x8f9/0xc20 ___sys_sendmsg+0x197/0x1e0 __sys_sendmsg+0x122/0x1f0 do_syscall_64+0xbb/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: qrtr: Drop the MHI auto_queue feature for IPCR DL channels MHI stack offers the 'auto_queue' feature, which allows the MHI stack to auto queue the buffers for the RX path (DL channel). Though this feature simplifies the client driver design, it introduces race between the client drivers and the MHI stack. For instance, with auto_queue, the 'dl_callback' for the DL channel may get called before the client driver is fully probed. This means, by the time the dl_callback gets called, the client driver's structures might not be initialized, leading to NULL ptr dereference. Currently, the drivers have to workaround this issue by initializing the internal structures before calling mhi_prepare_for_transfer_autoqueue(). But even so, there is a chance that the client driver's internal code path may call the MHI queue APIs before mhi_prepare_for_transfer_autoqueue() is called, leading to similar NULL ptr dereference. This issue has been reported on the Qcom X1E80100 CRD machines affecting boot. So to properly fix all these races, drop the MHI 'auto_queue' feature altogether and let the client driver (QRTR) manage the RX buffers manually. In the QRTR driver, queue the RX buffers based on the ring length during probe and recycle the buffers in 'dl_callback' once they are consumed. This also warrants removing the setting of 'auto_queue' flag from controller drivers. Currently, this 'auto_queue' feature is only enabled for IPCR DL channel. So only the QRTR client driver requires the modification.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: LoongArch: Enable exception fixup for specific ADE subcode This patch allows the LoongArch BPF JIT to handle recoverable memory access errors generated by BPF_PROBE_MEM* instructions. When a BPF program performs memory access operations, the instructions it executes may trigger ADEM exceptions. The kernel’s built-in BPF exception table mechanism (EX_TYPE_BPF) will generate corresponding exception fixup entries in the JIT compilation phase; however, the architecture-specific trap handling function needs to proactively call the common fixup routine to achieve exception recovery. do_ade(): fix EX_TYPE_BPF memory access exceptions for BPF programs, ensure safe execution. Relevant test cases: illegal address access tests in module_attach and subprogs_extable of selftests/bpf.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/msm: adreno: fix deferencing ifpc_reglist when not declared On plaforms with an a7xx GPU not supporting IFPC, the ifpc_reglist if still deferenced in a7xx_patch_pwrup_reglist() which causes a kernel crash: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000008 ... pc : a6xx_hw_init+0x155c/0x1e4c [msm] lr : a6xx_hw_init+0x9a8/0x1e4c [msm] ... Call trace: a6xx_hw_init+0x155c/0x1e4c [msm] (P) msm_gpu_hw_init+0x58/0x88 [msm] adreno_load_gpu+0x94/0x1fc [msm] msm_open+0xe4/0xf4 [msm] drm_file_alloc+0x1a0/0x2e4 [drm] drm_client_init+0x7c/0x104 [drm] drm_fbdev_client_setup+0x94/0xcf0 [drm_client_lib] drm_client_setup+0xb4/0xd8 [drm_client_lib] msm_drm_kms_post_init+0x2c/0x3c [msm] msm_drm_init+0x1a4/0x228 [msm] msm_drm_bind+0x30/0x3c [msm] ... Check the validity of ifpc_reglist before deferencing the table to setup the register values. Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/688944/

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: Fix refcount leak when invalid session is found on session lookup When a session is found but its state is not SMB2_SESSION_VALID, It indicates that no valid session was found, but it is missing to decrement the reference count acquired by the session lookup, which results in a reference count leak. This patch fixes the issue by explicitly calling ksmbd_user_session_put to release the reference to the session.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ALSA: timer: Set lower bound of start tick time Currently ALSA timer doesn't have the lower limit of the start tick time, and it allows a very small size, e.g. 1 tick with 1ns resolution for hrtimer. Such a situation may lead to an unexpected RCU stall, where the callback repeatedly queuing the expire update, as reported by fuzzer. This patch introduces a sanity check of the timer start tick time, so that the system returns an error when a too small start size is set. As of this patch, the lower limit is hard-coded to 100us, which is small enough but can still work somehow.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: Fix peer devlink set for SF representor devlink port The cited patch change register devlink flow, and neglect to reflect the changes for peer devlink set logic. Peer devlink set is triggering a call trace if done after devl_register.[1] Hence, align peer devlink set logic with register devlink flow. [1] WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 3394 at net/devlink/core.c:155 devlink_rel_nested_in_add+0x177/0x180 CPU: 4 PID: 3394 Comm: kworker/u40:1 Not tainted 6.9.0-rc4_for_linust_min_debug_2024_04_16_14_08 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Workqueue: mlx5_vhca_event0 mlx5_vhca_state_work_handler [mlx5_core] RIP: 0010:devlink_rel_nested_in_add+0x177/0x180 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __warn+0x78/0x120 ? devlink_rel_nested_in_add+0x177/0x180 ? report_bug+0x16d/0x180 ? handle_bug+0x3c/0x60 ? exc_invalid_op+0x14/0x70 ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20 ? devlink_port_init+0x30/0x30 ? devlink_port_type_clear+0x50/0x50 ? devlink_rel_nested_in_add+0x177/0x180 ? devlink_rel_nested_in_add+0xdd/0x180 mlx5_sf_mdev_event+0x74/0xb0 [mlx5_core] notifier_call_chain+0x35/0xb0 blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x3d/0x60 mlx5_blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x22/0x30 [mlx5_core] mlx5_sf_dev_probe+0x185/0x3e0 [mlx5_core] auxiliary_bus_probe+0x38/0x80 ? driver_sysfs_add+0x51/0x80 really_probe+0xc5/0x3a0 ? driver_probe_device+0x90/0x90 __driver_probe_device+0x80/0x160 driver_probe_device+0x1e/0x90 __device_attach_driver+0x7d/0x100 bus_for_each_drv+0x80/0xd0 __device_attach+0xbc/0x1f0 bus_probe_device+0x86/0xa0 device_add+0x64f/0x860 __auxiliary_device_add+0x3b/0xa0 mlx5_sf_dev_add+0x139/0x330 [mlx5_core] mlx5_sf_dev_state_change_handler+0x1e4/0x250 [mlx5_core] notifier_call_chain+0x35/0xb0 blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x3d/0x60 mlx5_vhca_state_work_handler+0x151/0x200 [mlx5_core] process_one_work+0x13f/0x2e0 worker_thread+0x2bd/0x3c0 ? rescuer_thread+0x410/0x410 kthread+0xc4/0xf0 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50 ? kthread_complete_and_exit+0x20/0x20 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 </TASK>

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: misc: bcm_vk: Fix possible null-pointer dereferences in bcm_vk_read() In the function bcm_vk_read(), the pointer entry is checked, indicating that it can be NULL. If entry is NULL and rc is set to -EMSGSIZE, the following code may cause null-pointer dereferences: struct vk_msg_blk tmp_msg = entry->to_h_msg[0]; set_msg_id(&tmp_msg, entry->usr_msg_id); tmp_msg.size = entry->to_h_blks - 1; To prevent these possible null-pointer dereferences, copy to_h_msg, usr_msg_id, and to_h_blks from iter into temporary variables, and return these temporary variables to the application instead of accessing them through a potentially NULL entry.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: typec: ucsi: Handle incorrect num_connectors capability The UCSI spec states that the num_connectors field is 7 bits, and the 8th bit is reserved and should be set to zero. Some buggy FW has been known to set this bit, and it can lead to a system not booting. Flag that the FW is not behaving correctly, and auto-fix the value so that the system boots correctly. Found on Lenovo P1 G8 during Linux enablement program. The FW will be fixed, but seemed worth addressing in case it hit platforms that aren't officially Linux supported.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ax25: Fix reference count leak issue of net_device There is a reference count leak issue of the object "net_device" in ax25_dev_device_down(). When the ax25 device is shutting down, the ax25_dev_device_down() drops the reference count of net_device one or zero times depending on if we goto unlock_put or not, which will cause memory leak. In order to solve the above issue, decrease the reference count of net_device after dev->ax25_ptr is set to null.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: s390/ap: Fix crash in AP internal function modify_bitmap() A system crash like this Failing address: 200000cb7df6f000 TEID: 200000cb7df6f403 Fault in home space mode while using kernel ASCE. AS:00000002d71bc007 R3:00000003fe5b8007 S:000000011a446000 P:000000015660c13d Oops: 0038 ilc:3 [#1] PREEMPT SMP Modules linked in: mlx5_ib ... CPU: 8 PID: 7556 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.9.0-rc7 #8 Hardware name: IBM 3931 A01 704 (LPAR) Krnl PSW : 0704e00180000000 0000014b75e7b606 (ap_parse_bitmap_str+0x10e/0x1f8) R:0 T:1 IO:1 EX:1 Key:0 M:1 W:0 P:0 AS:3 CC:2 PM:0 RI:0 EA:3 Krnl GPRS: 0000000000000001 ffffffffffffffc0 0000000000000001 00000048f96b75d3 000000cb00000100 ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff 000000cb7df6fce0 000000cb7df6fce0 00000000ffffffff 000000000000002b 00000048ffffffff 000003ff9b2dbc80 200000cb7df6fcd8 0000014bffffffc0 000000cb7df6fbc8 Krnl Code: 0000014b75e7b5fc: a7840047 brc 8,0000014b75e7b68a 0000014b75e7b600: 18b2 lr %r11,%r2 #0000014b75e7b602: a7f4000a brc 15,0000014b75e7b616 >0000014b75e7b606: eb22d00000e6 laog %r2,%r2,0(%r13) 0000014b75e7b60c: a7680001 lhi %r6,1 0000014b75e7b610: 187b lr %r7,%r11 0000014b75e7b612: 84960021 brxh %r9,%r6,0000014b75e7b654 0000014b75e7b616: 18e9 lr %r14,%r9 Call Trace: [<0000014b75e7b606>] ap_parse_bitmap_str+0x10e/0x1f8 ([<0000014b75e7b5dc>] ap_parse_bitmap_str+0xe4/0x1f8) [<0000014b75e7b758>] apmask_store+0x68/0x140 [<0000014b75679196>] kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x14e/0x1e8 [<0000014b75598524>] vfs_write+0x1b4/0x448 [<0000014b7559894c>] ksys_write+0x74/0x100 [<0000014b7618a440>] __do_syscall+0x268/0x328 [<0000014b761a3558>] system_call+0x70/0x98 INFO: lockdep is turned off. Last Breaking-Event-Address: [<0000014b75e7b636>] ap_parse_bitmap_str+0x13e/0x1f8 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception: panic_on_oops occured when /sys/bus/ap/a[pq]mask was updated with a relative mask value (like +0x10-0x12,+60,-90) with one of the numeric values exceeding INT_MAX. The fix is simple: use unsigned long values for the internal variables. The correct checks are already in place in the function but a simple int for the internal variables was used with the possibility to overflow.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: bcm - Fix pointer arithmetic In spu2_dump_omd() value of ptr is increased by ciph_key_len instead of hash_iv_len which could lead to going beyond the buffer boundaries. Fix this bug by changing ciph_key_len to hash_iv_len. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with SVACE.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gpio: mpsse: ensure worker is torn down When an IRQ worker is running, unplugging the device would cause a crash. The sealevel hardware this driver was written for was not hotpluggable, so I never realized it. This change uses a spinlock to protect a list of workers, which it tears down on disconnect.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RDMA/cm: Fix leaking the multicast GID table reference If the CM ID is destroyed while the CM event for multicast creating is still queued the cancel_work_sync() will prevent the work from running which also prevents destroying the ah_attr. This leaks a refcount and triggers a WARN: GID entry ref leak for dev syz1 index 2 ref=573 WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 655 at drivers/infiniband/core/cache.c:809 release_gid_table drivers/infiniband/core/cache.c:806 [inline] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 655 at drivers/infiniband/core/cache.c:809 gid_table_release_one+0x284/0x3cc drivers/infiniband/core/cache.c:886 Destroy the ah_attr after canceling the work, it is safe to call this twice.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs: ntfs3: check return value of indx_find to avoid infinite loop We found an infinite loop bug in the ntfs3 file system that can lead to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) condition. A malformed dentry in the ntfs3 filesystem can cause the kernel to hang during the lookup operations. By setting the HAS_SUB_NODE flag in an INDEX_ENTRY within a directory's INDEX_ALLOCATION block and manipulating the VCN pointer, an attacker can cause the indx_find() function to repeatedly read the same block, allocating 4 KB of memory each time. The kernel lacks VCN loop detection and depth limits, causing memory exhaustion and an OOM crash. This patch adds a return value check for fnd_push() to prevent a memory exhaustion vulnerability caused by infinite loops. When the index exceeds the size of the fnd->nodes array, fnd_push() returns -EINVAL. The indx_find() function checks this return value and stops processing, preventing further memory allocation.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: thermal/debugfs: Fix two locking issues with thermal zone debug With the current thermal zone locking arrangement in the debugfs code, user space can open the "mitigations" file for a thermal zone before the zone's debugfs pointer is set which will result in a NULL pointer dereference in tze_seq_start(). Moreover, thermal_debug_tz_remove() is not called under the thermal zone lock, so it can run in parallel with the other functions accessing the thermal zone's struct thermal_debugfs object. Then, it may clear tz->debugfs after one of those functions has checked it and the struct thermal_debugfs object may be freed prematurely. To address the first problem, pass a pointer to the thermal zone's struct thermal_debugfs object to debugfs_create_file() in thermal_debug_tz_add() and make tze_seq_start(), tze_seq_next(), tze_seq_stop(), and tze_seq_show() retrieve it from s->private instead of a pointer to the thermal zone object. This will ensure that tz_debugfs will be valid across the "mitigations" file accesses until thermal_debugfs_remove_id() called by thermal_debug_tz_remove() removes that file. To address the second problem, use tz->lock in thermal_debug_tz_remove() around the tz->debugfs value check (in case the same thermal zone is removed at the same time in two different threads) and its reset to NULL. Cc :6.8+ <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 6.8+

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/pseries/iommu: LPAR panics during boot up with a frozen PE At the time of LPAR boot up, partition firmware provides Open Firmware property ibm,dma-window for the PE. This property is provided on the PCI bus the PE is attached to. There are execptions where the partition firmware might not provide this property for the PE at the time of LPAR boot up. One of the scenario is where the firmware has frozen the PE due to some error condition. This PE is frozen for 24 hours or unless the whole system is reinitialized. Within this time frame, if the LPAR is booted, the frozen PE will be presented to the LPAR but ibm,dma-window property could be missing. Today, under these circumstances, the LPAR oopses with NULL pointer dereference, when configuring the PCI bus the PE is attached to. BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x000000c8 Faulting instruction address: 0xc0000000001024c0 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 7 [#1] LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Radix SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries Modules linked in: Supported: Yes CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.4.0-150600.9-default #1 Hardware name: IBM,9043-MRX POWER10 (raw) 0x800200 0xf000006 of:IBM,FW1060.00 (NM1060_023) hv:phyp pSeries NIP: c0000000001024c0 LR: c0000000001024b0 CTR: c000000000102450 REGS: c0000000037db5c0 TRAP: 0300 Not tainted (6.4.0-150600.9-default) MSR: 8000000002009033 <SF,VEC,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 28000822 XER: 00000000 CFAR: c00000000010254c DAR: 00000000000000c8 DSISR: 00080000 IRQMASK: 0 ... NIP [c0000000001024c0] pci_dma_bus_setup_pSeriesLP+0x70/0x2a0 LR [c0000000001024b0] pci_dma_bus_setup_pSeriesLP+0x60/0x2a0 Call Trace: pci_dma_bus_setup_pSeriesLP+0x60/0x2a0 (unreliable) pcibios_setup_bus_self+0x1c0/0x370 __of_scan_bus+0x2f8/0x330 pcibios_scan_phb+0x280/0x3d0 pcibios_init+0x88/0x12c do_one_initcall+0x60/0x320 kernel_init_freeable+0x344/0x3e4 kernel_init+0x34/0x1d0 ret_from_kernel_user_thread+0x14/0x1c

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: iwlwifi: Use request_module_nowait This appears to work around a deadlock regression that came in with the LED merge in 6.9. The deadlock happens on my system with 24 iwlwifi radios, so maybe it something like all worker threads are busy and some work that needs to complete cannot complete. [also remove unnecessary "load_module" var and now-wrong comment]

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: thermal/debugfs: Prevent use-after-free from occurring after cdev removal Since thermal_debug_cdev_remove() does not run under cdev->lock, it can run in parallel with thermal_debug_cdev_state_update() and it may free the struct thermal_debugfs object used by the latter after it has been checked against NULL. If that happens, thermal_debug_cdev_state_update() will access memory that has been freed already causing the kernel to crash. Address this by using cdev->lock in thermal_debug_cdev_remove() around the cdev->debugfs value check (in case the same cdev is removed at the same time in two different threads) and its reset to NULL. Cc :6.8+ <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 6.8+

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs: ntfs3: fix infinite loop in attr_load_runs_range on inconsistent metadata We found an infinite loop bug in the ntfs3 file system that can lead to a Denial-of-Service (DoS) condition. A malformed NTFS image can cause an infinite loop when an attribute header indicates an empty run list, while directory entries reference it as containing actual data. In NTFS, setting evcn=-1 with svcn=0 is a valid way to represent an empty run list, and run_unpack() correctly handles this by checking if evcn + 1 equals svcn and returning early without parsing any run data. However, this creates a problem when there is metadata inconsistency, where the attribute header claims to be empty (evcn=-1) but the caller expects to read actual data. When run_unpack() immediately returns success upon seeing this condition, it leaves the runs_tree uninitialized with run->runs as a NULL. The calling function attr_load_runs_range() assumes that a successful return means that the runs were loaded and sets clen to 0, expecting the next run_lookup_entry() call to succeed. Because runs_tree remains uninitialized, run_lookup_entry() continues to fail, and the loop increments vcn by zero (vcn += 0), leading to an infinite loop. This patch adds a retry counter to detect when run_lookup_entry() fails consecutively after attr_load_runs_vcn(). If the run is still not found on the second attempt, it indicates corrupted metadata and returns -EINVAL, preventing the Denial-of-Service (DoS) vulnerability.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: prevent NULL dereference in ip6_output() According to syzbot, there is a chance that ip6_dst_idev() returns NULL in ip6_output(). Most places in IPv6 stack deal with a NULL idev just fine, but not here. syzbot reported: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc00000000bc: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000005e0-0x00000000000005e7] CPU: 0 PID: 9775 Comm: syz-executor.4 Not tainted 6.9.0-rc5-syzkaller-00157-g6a30653b604a #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 03/27/2024 RIP: 0010:ip6_output+0x231/0x3f0 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:237 Code: 3c 1e 00 49 89 df 74 08 4c 89 ef e8 19 58 db f7 48 8b 44 24 20 49 89 45 00 49 89 c5 48 8d 9d e0 05 00 00 48 89 d8 48 c1 e8 03 <42> 0f b6 04 38 84 c0 4c 8b 74 24 28 0f 85 61 01 00 00 8b 1b 31 ff RSP: 0018:ffffc9000927f0d8 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: 00000000000000bc RBX: 00000000000005e0 RCX: 0000000000040000 RDX: ffffc900131f9000 RSI: 0000000000004f47 RDI: 0000000000004f48 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffffff8a1f0b9a R09: 1ffffffff1f51fad R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffffbfff1f51fae R12: ffff8880293ec8c0 R13: ffff88805d7fc000 R14: 1ffff1100527d91a R15: dffffc0000000000 FS: 00007f135c6856c0(0000) GS:ffff8880b9400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000020000080 CR3: 0000000064096000 CR4: 00000000003506f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> NF_HOOK include/linux/netfilter.h:314 [inline] ip6_xmit+0xefe/0x17f0 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:358 sctp_v6_xmit+0x9f2/0x13f0 net/sctp/ipv6.c:248 sctp_packet_transmit+0x26ad/0x2ca0 net/sctp/output.c:653 sctp_packet_singleton+0x22c/0x320 net/sctp/outqueue.c:783 sctp_outq_flush_ctrl net/sctp/outqueue.c:914 [inline] sctp_outq_flush+0x6d5/0x3e20 net/sctp/outqueue.c:1212 sctp_side_effects net/sctp/sm_sideeffect.c:1198 [inline] sctp_do_sm+0x59cc/0x60c0 net/sctp/sm_sideeffect.c:1169 sctp_primitive_ASSOCIATE+0x95/0xc0 net/sctp/primitive.c:73 __sctp_connect+0x9cd/0xe30 net/sctp/socket.c:1234 sctp_connect net/sctp/socket.c:4819 [inline] sctp_inet_connect+0x149/0x1f0 net/sctp/socket.c:4834 __sys_connect_file net/socket.c:2048 [inline] __sys_connect+0x2df/0x310 net/socket.c:2065 __do_sys_connect net/socket.c:2075 [inline] __se_sys_connect net/socket.c:2072 [inline] __x64_sys_connect+0x7a/0x90 net/socket.c:2072 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xf5/0x240 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: Fix backlog accounting in qdisc_dequeue_internal This issue applies for the following qdiscs: hhf, fq, fq_codel, and fq_pie, and occurs in their change handlers when adjusting to the new limit. The problem is the following in the values passed to the subsequent qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog call given a tbf parent: When the tbf parent runs out of tokens, skbs of these qdiscs will be placed in gso_skb. Their peek handlers are qdisc_peek_dequeued, which accounts for both qlen and backlog. However, in the case of qdisc_dequeue_internal, ONLY qlen is accounted for when pulling from gso_skb. This means that these qdiscs are missing a qdisc_qstats_backlog_dec when dropping packets to satisfy the new limit in their change handlers. One can observe this issue with the following (with tc patched to support a limit of 0): export TARGET=fq tc qdisc del dev lo root tc qdisc add dev lo root handle 1: tbf rate 8bit burst 100b latency 1ms tc qdisc replace dev lo handle 3: parent 1:1 $TARGET limit 1000 echo ''; echo 'add child'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo ping -I lo -f -c2 -s32 -W0.001 127.0.0.1 2>&1 >/dev/null echo ''; echo 'after ping'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo tc qdisc change dev lo handle 3: parent 1:1 $TARGET limit 0 echo ''; echo 'after limit drop'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo tc qdisc replace dev lo handle 2: parent 1:1 sfq echo ''; echo 'post graft'; tc -s -d qdisc show dev lo The second to last show command shows 0 packets but a positive number (74) of backlog bytes. The problem becomes clearer in the last show command, where qdisc_purge_queue triggers qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog with the positive backlog and causes an underflow in the tbf parent's backlog (4096 Mb instead of 0). To fix this issue, the codepath for all clients of qdisc_dequeue_internal has been simplified: codel, pie, hhf, fq, fq_pie, and fq_codel. qdisc_dequeue_internal handles the backlog adjustments for all cases that do not directly use the dequeue handler. The old fq_codel_change limit adjustment loop accumulated the arguments to the subsequent qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog call through the cstats field. However, this is confusing and error prone as fq_codel_dequeue could also potentially mutate this field (which qdisc_dequeue_internal calls in the non gso_skb case), so we have unified the code here with other qdiscs.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Revert "media: v4l2-ctrls: show all owned controls in log_status" This reverts commit 9801b5b28c6929139d6fceeee8d739cc67bb2739. This patch introduced a potential deadlock scenario: [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] Possible unsafe locking scenario: [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] CPU0 CPU1 [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] ---- ---- [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] lock(vivid_ctrls:1620:(hdl_vid_cap)->_lock); [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] lock(vivid_ctrls:1608:(hdl_user_vid)->_lock); [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] lock(vivid_ctrls:1620:(hdl_vid_cap)->_lock); [Wed May 8 10:02:06 2024] lock(vivid_ctrls:1608:(hdl_user_vid)->_lock); For now just revert.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf, skmsg: Fix NULL pointer dereference in sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue Fix NULL pointer data-races in sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue() which syzbot reported [1]. [1] BUG: KCSAN: data-race in sk_psock_drop / sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue write to 0xffff88814b3278b8 of 8 bytes by task 10724 on cpu 1: sk_psock_stop_verdict net/core/skmsg.c:1257 [inline] sk_psock_drop+0x13e/0x1f0 net/core/skmsg.c:843 sk_psock_put include/linux/skmsg.h:459 [inline] sock_map_close+0x1a7/0x260 net/core/sock_map.c:1648 unix_release+0x4b/0x80 net/unix/af_unix.c:1048 __sock_release net/socket.c:659 [inline] sock_close+0x68/0x150 net/socket.c:1421 __fput+0x2c1/0x660 fs/file_table.c:422 __fput_sync+0x44/0x60 fs/file_table.c:507 __do_sys_close fs/open.c:1556 [inline] __se_sys_close+0x101/0x1b0 fs/open.c:1541 __x64_sys_close+0x1f/0x30 fs/open.c:1541 do_syscall_64+0xd3/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6d/0x75 read to 0xffff88814b3278b8 of 8 bytes by task 10713 on cpu 0: sk_psock_data_ready include/linux/skmsg.h:464 [inline] sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue+0x32d/0x390 net/core/skmsg.c:555 sk_psock_skb_ingress_self+0x185/0x1e0 net/core/skmsg.c:606 sk_psock_verdict_apply net/core/skmsg.c:1008 [inline] sk_psock_verdict_recv+0x3e4/0x4a0 net/core/skmsg.c:1202 unix_read_skb net/unix/af_unix.c:2546 [inline] unix_stream_read_skb+0x9e/0xf0 net/unix/af_unix.c:2682 sk_psock_verdict_data_ready+0x77/0x220 net/core/skmsg.c:1223 unix_stream_sendmsg+0x527/0x860 net/unix/af_unix.c:2339 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:730 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x140/0x180 net/socket.c:745 ____sys_sendmsg+0x312/0x410 net/socket.c:2584 ___sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2638 [inline] __sys_sendmsg+0x1e9/0x280 net/socket.c:2667 __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2676 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2674 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x46/0x50 net/socket.c:2674 do_syscall_64+0xd3/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6d/0x75 value changed: 0xffffffff83d7feb0 -> 0x0000000000000000 Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on: CPU: 0 PID: 10713 Comm: syz-executor.4 Tainted: G W 6.8.0-syzkaller-08951-gfe46a7dd189e #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/29/2024 Prior to this, commit 4cd12c6065df ("bpf, sockmap: Fix NULL pointer dereference in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready()") fixed one NULL pointer similarly due to no protection of saved_data_ready. Here is another different caller causing the same issue because of the same reason. So we should protect it with sk_callback_lock read lock because the writer side in the sk_psock_drop() uses "write_lock_bh(&sk->sk_callback_lock);". To avoid errors that could happen in future, I move those two pairs of lock into the sk_psock_data_ready(), which is suggested by John Fastabend.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Check bloom filter map value size This patch adds a missing check to bloom filter creating, rejecting values above KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE. This brings the bloom map in line with many other map types. The lack of this protection can cause kernel crashes for value sizes that overflow int's. Such a crash was caught by syzkaller. The next patch adds more guard-rails at a lower level.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: misc: ti_fpc202: fix a potential memory leak in probe function Use for_each_child_of_node_scoped() to simplify the code and ensure the device node reference is automatically released when the loop scope ends.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: can: j1939: make j1939_session_activate() fail if device is no longer registered syzbot is still reporting unregister_netdevice: waiting for vcan0 to become free. Usage count = 2 even after commit 93a27b5891b8 ("can: j1939: add missing calls in NETDEV_UNREGISTER notification handler") was added. A debug printk() patch found that j1939_session_activate() can succeed even after j1939_cancel_active_session() from j1939_netdev_notify(NETDEV_UNREGISTER) has completed. Since j1939_cancel_active_session() is processed with the session list lock held, checking ndev->reg_state in j1939_session_activate() with the session list lock held can reliably close the race window.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ice: fix Tx scheduler error handling in XDP callback When the XDP program is loaded, the XDP callback adds new Tx queues. This means that the callback must update the Tx scheduler with the new queue number. In the event of a Tx scheduler failure, the XDP callback should also fail and roll back any changes previously made for XDP preparation. The previous implementation had a bug that not all changes made by the XDP callback were rolled back. This caused the crash with the following call trace: [ +9.549584] ice 0000:ca:00.0: Failed VSI LAN queue config for XDP, error: -5 [ +0.382335] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0x50a2250a90495525: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ +0.010710] CPU: 103 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/103 Not tainted 6.14.0-net-next-mar-31+ #14 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ +0.010175] Hardware name: Intel Corporation M50CYP2SBSTD/M50CYP2SBSTD, BIOS SE5C620.86B.01.01.0005.2202160810 02/16/2022 [ +0.010946] RIP: 0010:__ice_update_sample+0x39/0xe0 [ice] [...] [ +0.002715] Call Trace: [ +0.002452] <IRQ> [ +0.002021] ? __die_body.cold+0x19/0x29 [ +0.003922] ? die_addr+0x3c/0x60 [ +0.003319] ? exc_general_protection+0x17c/0x400 [ +0.004707] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x26/0x30 [ +0.004879] ? __ice_update_sample+0x39/0xe0 [ice] [ +0.004835] ice_napi_poll+0x665/0x680 [ice] [ +0.004320] __napi_poll+0x28/0x190 [ +0.003500] net_rx_action+0x198/0x360 [ +0.003752] ? update_rq_clock+0x39/0x220 [ +0.004013] handle_softirqs+0xf1/0x340 [ +0.003840] ? sched_clock_cpu+0xf/0x1f0 [ +0.003925] __irq_exit_rcu+0xc2/0xe0 [ +0.003665] common_interrupt+0x85/0xa0 [ +0.003839] </IRQ> [ +0.002098] <TASK> [ +0.002106] asm_common_interrupt+0x26/0x40 [ +0.004184] RIP: 0010:cpuidle_enter_state+0xd3/0x690 Fix this by performing the missing unmapping of XDP queues from q_vectors and setting the XDP rings pointer back to NULL after all those queues are released. Also, add an immediate exit from the XDP callback in case of ring preparation failure.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/amd/display: Handle null 'stream_status' in 'planes_changed_for_existing_stream' This commit adds a null check for 'stream_status' in the function 'planes_changed_for_existing_stream'. Previously, the code assumed 'stream_status' could be null, but did not handle the case where it was actually null. This could lead to a null pointer dereference. Reported by smatch: drivers/gpu/drm/amd/amdgpu/../display/dc/core/dc_resource.c:3784 planes_changed_for_existing_stream() error: we previously assumed 'stream_status' could be null (see line 3774)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: svcauth_gss: avoid NULL deref on zero length gss_token in gss_read_proxy_verf A zero length gss_token results in pages == 0 and in_token->pages[0] is NULL. The code unconditionally evaluates page_address(in_token->pages[0]) for the initial memcpy, which can dereference NULL even when the copy length is 0. Guard the first memcpy so it only runs when length > 0.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: via_wdt: fix critical boot hang due to unnamed resource allocation The VIA watchdog driver uses allocate_resource() to reserve a MMIO region for the watchdog control register. However, the allocated resource was not given a name, which causes the kernel resource tree to contain an entry marked as "<BAD>" under /proc/iomem on x86 platforms. During boot, this unnamed resource can lead to a critical hang because subsequent resource lookups and conflict checks fail to handle the invalid entry properly.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/panthor: Recover from panthor_gpu_flush_caches() failures We have seen a few cases where the whole memory subsystem is blocked and flush operations never complete. When that happens, we want to: - schedule a reset, so we can recover from this situation - in the reset path, we need to reset the pending_reqs so we can send new commands after the reset - if more panthor_gpu_flush_caches() operations are queued after the timeout, we skip them and return -EIO directly to avoid needless waits (the memory block won't miraculously work again) Note that we drop the WARN_ON()s because these hangs can be triggered with buggy GPU jobs created by the UMD, and there's no way we can prevent it. We do keep the error messages though. v2: - New patch v3: - Collect R-b - Explicitly mention the fact we dropped the WARN_ON()s in the commit message v4: - No changes

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: nf_conncount: fix leaked ct in error paths There are some situations where ct might be leaked as error paths are skipping the refcounted check and return immediately. In order to solve it make sure that the check is always called.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/tilcdc: Fix removal actions in case of failed probe The drm_kms_helper_poll_fini() and drm_atomic_helper_shutdown() helpers should only be called when the device has been successfully registered. Currently, these functions are called unconditionally in tilcdc_fini(), which causes warnings during probe deferral scenarios. [ 7.972317] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 23 at drivers/gpu/drm/drm_atomic_state_helper.c:175 drm_atomic_helper_crtc_duplicate_state+0x60/0x68 ... [ 8.005820] drm_atomic_helper_crtc_duplicate_state from drm_atomic_get_crtc_state+0x68/0x108 [ 8.005858] drm_atomic_get_crtc_state from drm_atomic_helper_disable_all+0x90/0x1c8 [ 8.005885] drm_atomic_helper_disable_all from drm_atomic_helper_shutdown+0x90/0x144 [ 8.005911] drm_atomic_helper_shutdown from tilcdc_fini+0x68/0xf8 [tilcdc] [ 8.005957] tilcdc_fini [tilcdc] from tilcdc_pdev_probe+0xb0/0x6d4 [tilcdc] Fix this by rewriting the failed probe cleanup path using the standard goto error handling pattern, which ensures that cleanup functions are only called on successfully initialized resources. Additionally, remove the now-unnecessary is_registered flag.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: do not free data reservation in fallback from inline due to -ENOSPC If we fail to create an inline extent due to -ENOSPC, we will attempt to go through the normal COW path, reserve an extent, create an ordered extent, etc. However we were always freeing the reserved qgroup data, which is wrong since we will use data. Fix this by freeing the reserved qgroup data in __cow_file_range_inline() only if we are not doing the fallback (ret is <= 0).

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tipc: fix a possible memleak in tipc_buf_append __skb_linearize() doesn't free the skb when it fails, so move '*buf = NULL' after __skb_linearize(), so that the skb can be freed on the err path.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: Fix potential uninit-value access in __ip6_make_skb() As it was done in commit fc1092f51567 ("ipv4: Fix uninit-value access in __ip_make_skb()") for IPv4, check FLOWI_FLAG_KNOWN_NH on fl6->flowi6_flags instead of testing HDRINCL on the socket to avoid a race condition which causes uninit-value access.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mmc: sdhci-of-dwcmshc: Prevent illegal clock reduction in HS200/HS400 mode When operating in HS200 or HS400 timing modes, reducing the clock frequency below 52MHz will lead to link broken as the Rockchip DWC MSHC controller requires maintaining a minimum clock of 52MHz in these modes. Add a check to prevent illegal clock reduction through debugfs: root@debian:/# echo 50000000 > /sys/kernel/debug/mmc0/clock root@debian:/# [ 30.090146] mmc0: running CQE recovery mmc0: cqhci: Failed to halt mmc0: cqhci: spurious TCN for tag 0 WARNING: drivers/mmc/host/cqhci-core.c:797 at cqhci_irq+0x254/0x818, CPU#1: kworker/1:0H/24 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 24 Comm: kworker/1:0H Not tainted 6.19.0-rc1-00001-g09db0998649d-dirty #204 PREEMPT Hardware name: Rockchip RK3588 EVB1 V10 Board (DT) Workqueue: kblockd blk_mq_run_work_fn pstate: 604000c9 (nZCv daIF +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : cqhci_irq+0x254/0x818 lr : cqhci_irq+0x254/0x818 ...

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: blk-iocost: do not WARN if iocg was already offlined In iocg_pay_debt(), warn is triggered if 'active_list' is empty, which is intended to confirm iocg is active when it has debt. However, warn can be triggered during a blkcg or disk removal, if iocg_waitq_timer_fn() is run at that time: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 2344971 at block/blk-iocost.c:1402 iocg_pay_debt+0x14c/0x190 Call trace: iocg_pay_debt+0x14c/0x190 iocg_kick_waitq+0x438/0x4c0 iocg_waitq_timer_fn+0xd8/0x130 __run_hrtimer+0x144/0x45c __hrtimer_run_queues+0x16c/0x244 hrtimer_interrupt+0x2cc/0x7b0 The warn in this situation is meaningless. Since this iocg is being removed, the state of the 'active_list' is irrelevant, and 'waitq_timer' is canceled after removing 'active_list' in ioc_pd_free(), which ensures iocg is freed after iocg_waitq_timer_fn() returns. Therefore, add the check if iocg was already offlined to avoid warn when removing a blkcg or disk.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KEYS: trusted: Fix memory leak in tpm2_key_encode() 'scratch' is never freed. Fix this by calling kfree() in the success, and in the error case.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/sva: invalidate stale IOTLB entries for kernel address space Introduce a new IOMMU interface to flush IOTLB paging cache entries for the CPU kernel address space. This interface is invoked from the x86 architecture code that manages combined user and kernel page tables, specifically before any kernel page table page is freed and reused. This addresses the main issue with vfree() which is a common occurrence and can be triggered by unprivileged users. While this resolves the primary problem, it doesn't address some extremely rare case related to memory unplug of memory that was present as reserved memory at boot, which cannot be triggered by unprivileged users. The discussion can be found at the link below. Enable SVA on x86 architecture since the IOMMU can now receive notification to flush the paging cache before freeing the CPU kernel page table pages.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: vgic-v2: Check for non-NULL vCPU in vgic_v2_parse_attr() vgic_v2_parse_attr() is responsible for finding the vCPU that matches the user-provided CPUID, which (of course) may not be valid. If the ID is invalid, kvm_get_vcpu_by_id() returns NULL, which isn't handled gracefully. Similar to the GICv3 uaccess flow, check that kvm_get_vcpu_by_id() actually returns something and fail the ioctl if not.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: typec: tcpm: Check for port partner validity before consuming it typec_register_partner() does not guarantee partner registration to always succeed. In the event of failure, port->partner is set to the error value or NULL. Given that port->partner validity is not checked, this results in the following crash: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address xx pc : run_state_machine+0x1bc8/0x1c08 lr : run_state_machine+0x1b90/0x1c08 .. Call trace: run_state_machine+0x1bc8/0x1c08 tcpm_state_machine_work+0x94/0xe4 kthread_worker_fn+0x118/0x328 kthread+0x1d0/0x23c ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 To prevent the crash, check for port->partner validity before derefencing it in all the call sites.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: Fix memory leak in get_file_all_info() In get_file_all_info(), if vfs_getattr() fails, the function returns immediately without freeing the allocated filename, leading to a memory leak. Fix this by freeing the filename before returning in this error case.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: ti: dma-crossbar: fix device leak on am335x route allocation Make sure to drop the reference taken when looking up the crossbar platform device during am335x route allocation.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/tests: shmem: Hold reservation lock around purge Acquire and release the GEM object's reservation lock around calls to the object's purge operation. The tests use drm_gem_shmem_purge_locked(), which led to errors such as show below. [ 58.709128] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 1354 at drivers/gpu/drm/drm_gem_shmem_helper.c:515 drm_gem_shmem_purge_locked+0x51c/0x740 Only export the new helper drm_gem_shmem_purge() for Kunit tests. This is not an interface for regular drivers.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Revert "riscv: Define TASK_SIZE_MAX for __access_ok()" This reverts commit ad5643cf2f69 ("riscv: Define TASK_SIZE_MAX for __access_ok()"). This commit changes TASK_SIZE_MAX to be LONG_MAX to optimize access_ok(), because the previous TASK_SIZE_MAX (default to TASK_SIZE) requires some computation. The reasoning was that all user addresses are less than LONG_MAX, and all kernel addresses are greater than LONG_MAX. Therefore access_ok() can filter kernel addresses. Addresses between TASK_SIZE and LONG_MAX are not valid user addresses, but access_ok() let them pass. That was thought to be okay, because they are not valid addresses at hardware level. Unfortunately, one case is missed: get_user_pages_fast() happily accepts addresses between TASK_SIZE and LONG_MAX. futex(), for instance, uses get_user_pages_fast(). This causes the problem reported by Robert [1]. Therefore, revert this commit. TASK_SIZE_MAX is changed to the default: TASK_SIZE. This unfortunately reduces performance, because TASK_SIZE is more expensive to compute compared to LONG_MAX. But correctness first, we can think about optimization later, if required.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb/server: fix refcount leak in parse_durable_handle_context() When the command is a replay operation and -ENOEXEC is returned, the refcount of ksmbd_file must be released.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/msm/dpu: Add missing NULL pointer check for pingpong interface It is checked almost always in dpu_encoder_phys_wb_setup_ctl(), but in a single place the check is missing. Also use convenient locals instead of phys_enc->* where available. Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/693860/

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI: endpoint: Avoid creating sub-groups asynchronously The asynchronous creation of sub-groups by a delayed work could lead to a NULL pointer dereference when the driver directory is removed before the work completes. The crash can be easily reproduced with the following commands: # cd /sys/kernel/config/pci_ep/functions/pci_epf_test # for i in {1..20}; do mkdir test && rmdir test; done BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000088 ... Call Trace: configfs_register_group+0x3d/0x190 pci_epf_cfs_work+0x41/0x110 process_one_work+0x18f/0x350 worker_thread+0x25a/0x3a0 Fix this issue by using configfs_add_default_group() API which does not have the deadlock problem as configfs_register_group() and does not require the delayed work handler. [mani: slightly reworded the description and added stable list]