RHEL8/9: "yum update" never finishes, top shows "check_caveats" spins on a CPU and never terminates

Issue

• When executing yum update or yum reinstall microcode_ctl, the command never finishes and we can see check_caveats spinning on a CPU

  # yum -y update
  [...]
  Running scriptlet: kernel-core-4.18.0-477.13.1.el8_8.x86_64                      177/466
  --> never continues
  
  # ps -auxwwwm
  USER        PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
  [...]
  root       8735 99.7  0.0  13424  2368 pts/0    -    19:44  18:54 /bin/bash -eu /usr/libexec/microcode_ctl/check_caveats -k 4.18.0-425.19.2.el8_7.x86_64 -c intel-06-8e-9e-0x-dell
  [...]    
  

  Output may vary.