Power-state inconsistency via unbalanced runtime-PM decrement
Published Dec 30, 2025 · Updated Dec 30, 2025
Reference-count underflow in the Linux kernel SoundWire bus allows local users to disrupt device power management during error handling. Three bus functions ignore an -EACCES result from pm_runtime_resume_and_get(), then call pm_runtime_put() without a matching increment. Reachability requires SoundWire audio hardware and a specific device power-state transition error; Red Hat reports state inconsistency but says the system typically does not crash.
Summary
What happened
Reference-count underflow in the Linux kernel SoundWire bus allows local users to disrupt device power management during error handling. Three bus functions ignore an -EACCES result from pm_runtime_resume_and_get(), then call pm_runtime_put() without a matching increment. Reachability requires SoundWire audio hardware and a specific device power-state transition error; Red Hat reports state inconsistency but says the system typically does not crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-54259
- Published
- Dec 30, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 30, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-911
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 30, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Dec 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <203aa4374c433159f163acde2d0bd4118f23bbaf
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <4e5e9da139c007dfc397a159093b4c4187ee67fa
- Affected versionversion=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <e9537962519e88969f5f69cd0571eb4f6984403c
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