🛡️ CVE-2025-38062 — debian-linux

🟠 CVSS 7.8 — High ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
7.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

genirq/msi: Store the IOMMU IOVA directly in msi_desc instead of iommu_cookie

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

genirq/msi: Store the IOMMU IOVA directly in msi_desc instead of iommu_cookie

The IOMMU translation for MSI message addresses has been a 2-step process,

separated in time:

1) iommu_dma_prepare_msi(): A cookie pointer containing the IOVA address

is stored in the MSI descriptor when an MSI interrupt is allocated.

2) iommu_dma_compose_msi_msg(): this cookie pointer is used to compute a

translated message address.

This has an inherent lifetime problem for the pointer stored in the cookie

that must remain valid between the two steps. However, there is no locking

at the irq layer that helps protect the lifetime. Today, this works under

the assumption that the iommu domain is not changed while MSI interrupts

being programmed. This is true for normal DMA API users within the kernel,

as the iommu domain is attached before the driver is probed and cannot be

changed while a driver is attached.

Classic VFIO type1 also prevented changing the iommu domain while VFIO was

running as it does not support changing the "container" after starting up.

However, iommufd has improved this so that the iommu domain can be changed

during VFIO operation. This potentially allows userspace to directly race

VFIO_DEVICE_ATTACH_IOMMUFD_PT (which calls iommu_attach_group()) and

VFIO_DEVICE_SET_IRQS (which calls into iommu_dma_compose_msi_msg()).

This potentially causes both the cookie pointer and the unlocked call to

iommu_get_domain_for_dev() on the MSI translation path to become UAFs.

Fix the MSI cookie UAF by removing the cookie pointer. The translated IOVA

address is already known during iommu_dma_prepare_msi() and cannot change.

Thus, it can simply be stored as an integer in the MSI descriptor.

The other UAF related to iommu_get_domain_for_dev() will be addressed in

patch "iommu: Make iommu_dma_prepare_msi() into a generic operation" by

using the IOMMU group mutex.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Affected software

CVE-2025-38062 is recorded against 3 packages.

  • debian-linux
  • kernel (from 6.13.0 up to 6.14.9)
  • linux-kernel (from 6.13 up to 6.14.9)

Timeline and source

Published on 18 June 2025 and last revised on 30 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
lists.debian.org

CVE-2025-38062 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 7.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-06-18
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-07-30

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
debian-linux
kernel 6.13.0 6.14.9
linux-kernel 6.13 6.14.9

Similar Threats

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