CVE-2024-37021
kernel: fpga: manager: add owner module and take its refcount
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · June 24, 2024
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fpga: manager: add owner module and take its refcount
The current implementation of the fpga manager assumes that the low-level module registers a driver for the parent device and uses its owner pointer to take the module's refcount. This approach is problematic since it can lead to a null pointer dereference while attempting to get the manager if the parent device does not have a driver.
To address this problem, add a module owner pointer to the fpga_manager struct and use it to take the module's refcount. Modify the functions for registering the manager to take an additional owner module parameter and rename them to avoid conflicts. Use the old function names for helper macros that automatically set the module that registers the manager as the owner. This ensures compatibility with existing low-level control modules and reduces the chances of registering a manager without setting the owner.
Also, update the documentation to keep it consistent with the new interface for registering an fpga manager.
Other changes: opportunistically move put_device() from __fpga_mgr_get() to fpga_mgr_get() and of_fpga_mgr_get() to improve code clarity since the manager device is taken in these functions.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 4.4CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference