CVE-2026-98688 — thunderbolt: Fix NULL dereference in tb_remove_work()

Affected: Linux

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

thunderbolt: Fix NULL dereference in tb_remove_work()

There is a slight race between tb_remove_work() and tb_domain_remove() which leads to dereferencing a NULL tb->root_switch pointer inside tb_free_unplugged_xdomains():

Thread A Thread B

tb_remove_work() tb_domain_remove() mutex_lock(&tb->lock) tb_stop() /* doesn't cancel a running callback */ cancel_delayed_work(&tcm->remove_work) ... tb_switch_remove(tb->root_switch) tb->root_switch = NULL mutex_unlock(&tb->lock) mutex_lock(&tb->lock) ... /* without checking ->root_switch */ tb_free_unplugged_xdomains(tb->root_switch) mutex_unlock(&tb->lock)

Commit a8937f35cf39 ("thunderbolt: Remove XDomain from the bus without holding tb->lock") doesn't seem right to move tb_free_unplugged_xdomains() out of the &tb->lock section and the check for tb->root_switch, in particular. It states:

For this reason separate removing the XDomain from the topology data structures (where we need the lock) from unregistering the device from the bus (where remove callbacks…

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CVE-2026-98688 — thunderbolt: Fix NULL dereference in tb_remove_work()