CVE-2026-74653
serial: 8250_of: clear stuck empty-FIFO RX-timeout on LPC32xx
- State
- Published
- Severity
- Not scored
- Published
- Aug 22, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 21, 2026
- Reserved
- Aug 15, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
serial: 8250_of: clear stuck empty-FIFO RX-timeout on LPC32xx
The NXP LPC32xx UART (PORT_LPC3220) can latch an RX character-timeout interrupt while the RX FIFO is empty: IIR reports UART_IIR_RX_TIMEOUT (0x0c) but LSR.DR is clear. A character timeout is only cleared by reading RHR, but serial8250_rx_chars() reads RHR only when LSR.DR is set, so nothing ever clears the condition. The interrupt is level-triggered and re-fires immediately, so on a single-core ARM926 the resulting interrupt storm livelocks the CPU.
It is reproducible when userspace repeatedly opens the front-panel port (ttyS1): serial8250_do_set_termios() re-enables interrupts on unlock and the handler then spins forever with iir=0xcc lsr=0x60 ier=0x05, tripping the soft-lockup detector in serial8250_handle_irq_locked().
LPC32xx has no dedicated 8250 glue driver, it's driven by the generic 8250_of. Add a hardware specific handle_irq for PORT_LPC3220, wired up in of_platform_serial_setup() the same way fsl8250_handle_irq is installed. The handler follows dw8250_handle_irq(): on an RX timeout with an empty FIFO (LSR.DR and LSR.BI clear) it does one throwaway RHR read to clear the condition, then calls serial8250_handle_irq_locked(). No real received data is ever discarded, and it is a no-op on healthy UARTs which never report a timeout with DR clear.
This is the same class of bug already worked around in other 8250 drivers; see commit 424d79183af0 ("serial: 8250_dw: Avoid "too much work" from bogus rx timeout interrupt") which reports the identical iir=0xcc/lsr=0x60. See also UART_RX_TIMEOUT_QUIRK in 8250_omap, and the note in 8250_bcm7271.
Scores
The record has no CVSS score.
Weaknesses
The record names no weakness.
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
LinuxLinux |
|
LinuxLinux |
|
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cc325ce1c40a111824827532ac132afb3d1c342b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c321dc5172c8c66e21ffbeeb7a2ebb88ae6fd4c3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3ce24bc4d115336218e59b7e286fd3a79f4fc4c6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7795e8abedc86438cae0454602cbf9038b94bf38
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1423415471274abda87024967d7fe2206ceee0ea
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