WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update

Status: upstream: reported C repro on 2026/08/27 18:51
Subsystems: kernel
[Documentation on labels]
Reported-by: syzbot+372a7d84708b07f64d9b@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
Fix commit: devlink: use direct firmware requests for flash updates
Patched on: [ci-upstream-linux-next-kasan-gce-root ci-upstream-net-kasan-gce], missing on: [ci-qemu-gce-upstream-auto ci-qemu-native-arm64-kvm ci-qemu-upstream ci-qemu-upstream-386 ci-qemu2-arm32 ci-qemu2-arm64 ci-qemu2-arm64-compat ci-qemu2-arm64-mte ci-qemu2-riscv64 ci-snapshot-upstream-root ci-upstream-bpf-kasan-gce ci-upstream-bpf-next-kasan-gce ci-upstream-gce-arm64 ci-upstream-gce-leak ci-upstream-kasan-badwrites-root ci-upstream-kasan-gce ci-upstream-kasan-gce-386 ci-upstream-kasan-gce-root ci-upstream-kasan-gce-selinux-root ci-upstream-kasan-gce-smack-root ci-upstream-kmsan-gce-386-root ci-upstream-kmsan-gce-root ci-upstream-net-this-kasan-gce ci-upstream-rust-kasan-gce ci2-upstream-fs ci2-upstream-kcsan-gce ci2-upstream-usb]
First crash: 24d, last: 5d16h
✨ AI Jobs (5)
ID Workflow Result Correct Bug Created Started Finished Revision
e9c794f1 assessment-security 💥 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 2026/09/13 00:37 2026/09/13 00:37 2026/09/13 00:37 70a60e12
6167f05d assessment-security 💥 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 2026/09/04 06:23 2026/09/04 06:23 2026/09/04 06:23 801f0966
ae2c5ca0 assessment-security 💥 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 2026/08/31 00:57 2026/08/31 00:57 2026/08/31 00:57 2f52988a
7d6e2e9b assessment-security 💥 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 2026/08/29 00:03 2026/08/29 00:03 2026/08/29 00:03 bcbc8ceb
f6292bb0 assessment-security 💥 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 2026/08/27 02:12 2026/08/27 02:12 2026/08/27 02:12 a2b77b9e
Discussions (4)
Title Replies (including bot) Last reply
[PATCH net v4] devlink: use direct firmware requests for flash updates 2 (2) 2026/09/04 00:20
[PATCH net v2] devlink: request flash firmware without instance lock 6 (6) 2026/09/02 09:59
[PATCH net] devlink: request flash firmware without instance lock 2 (2) 2026/08/29 15:56
[syzbot] [kernel?] WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 0 (1) 2026/08/27 18:51

Sample crash report:
====================================
WARNING: syz.3.25/6032 still has locks held!
syzkaller #0 Not tainted
------------------------------------
locks held by syz.3.25/6032: 1, last CPU#1:
 #0: ffff88805a506258 (&devlink->lock_key#4){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: devlink_compat_flash_update+0xaf/0x360 net/devlink/dev.c:1237

stack backtrace:
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 6032 Comm: syz.3.25 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) 
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline]
 dump_stack_lvl+0x100/0x190 lib/dump_stack.c:120
 print_held_locks_bug kernel/locking/lockdep.c:6848 [inline]
 debug_check_no_locks_held+0x90/0xa0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:6856
 try_to_freeze include/linux/freezer.h:62 [inline]
 usermodehelper_read_trylock+0x238/0x250 kernel/umh.c:228
 fw_load_from_user_helper drivers/base/firmware_loader/fallback.c:157 [inline]
 firmware_fallback_sysfs+0x6d6/0xc60 drivers/base/firmware_loader/fallback.c:248
 _request_firmware+0xfd7/0x13c0 drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c:898
 request_firmware+0x35/0x50 drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c:948
 devlink_compat_flash_update+0x191/0x360 net/devlink/dev.c:1248
 dev_ethtool+0x64e/0x6bb0 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3676
 dev_ioctl+0x63b/0x10e0 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:751
 sock_do_ioctl+0x1a0/0x280 net/socket.c:1339
 sock_ioctl+0x599/0x6b0 net/socket.c:1446
 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
 __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline]
 __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline]
 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:583
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:61 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x123/0x790 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:84
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7fce3259e159
Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 e8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007fffdf9584c8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fce32825fa0 RCX: 00007fce3259e159
RDX: 0000200000000040 RSI: 0000000000008946 RDI: 0000000000000004
RBP: 00007fce3263503b R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 00007fce32825fac R14: 00007fce32825fa0 R15: 00007fce32825fa0
 </TASK>

Crashes (4):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/09/13 07:04 upstream 2f0c1cf72f46 70a60e12 .config console log report syz / log C [disk image (non-bootable)] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-qemu-upstream WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update
2026/08/26 03:49 upstream 73ae59e97596 6a91adb4 .config console log report syz / log C [disk image (non-bootable)] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-qemu-upstream-386 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update
2026/08/27 10:17 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git 818bebeb63dd 1e72964b .config console log report C ci-qemu-upstream WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update
2026/08/25 23:10 upstream 73ae59e97596 6a91adb4 .config console log report info [disk image (non-bootable)] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-qemu-upstream-386 WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.