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
First crash: 3d15h, last: 2d04h
✨ AI Jobs (2)
ID Workflow Result Correct Bug Created Started Finished Revision
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 (2)
Title Replies (including bot) Last reply
[PATCH net] devlink: request flash firmware without instance lock 1 (1) 2026/08/29 14:24
[syzbot] [kernel?] WARNING: still has locks held in devlink_compat_flash_update 0 (1) 2026/08/27 18:51

Sample crash report:
====================================
WARNING: syz.1.24/6043 still has locks held!
syzkaller #0 Not tainted
------------------------------------
locks held by syz.1.24/6043: 1, last CPU#3:
 #0: ffff888029f7e258 (&devlink->lock_key#4){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: devlink_compat_flash_update+0xaf/0x360 net/devlink/dev.c:1237

stack backtrace:
CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 6043 Comm: syz.1.24 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:6770 [inline]
 debug_check_no_locks_held+0x90/0xa0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:6778
 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/0x1070 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:751
 compat_ifr_data_ioctl net/socket.c:3534 [inline]
 compat_sock_ioctl_trans net/socket.c:3564 [inline]
 compat_sock_ioctl+0x4f9/0x760 net/socket.c:3654
 __do_compat_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:695 [inline]
 __se_compat_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:638 [inline]
 __ia32_compat_sys_ioctl+0x2cf/0x360 fs/ioctl.c:638
 do_syscall_32_irqs_on arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:79 [inline]
 __do_fast_syscall_32+0x13a/0x8b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:291
 do_fast_syscall_32+0x32/0x70 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:316
 entry_SYSENTER_compat_after_hwframe+0x84/0x8e
RIP: 0023:0xf6fdefec
Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at 0xf6fdefc2.
RSP: 002b:00000000ff8f659c EFLAGS: 00000292 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000036
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000004 RCX: 0000000000008946
RDX: 0000000080000040 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
 </TASK>

Crashes (3):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
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.