🛡️ CVE-2025-38392 — kernel

🟡 CVSS 5.5 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
5.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

idpf: convert control queue mutex to a spinlock

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

idpf: convert control queue mutex to a spinlock

With VIRTCHNL2_CAP_MACFILTER enabled, the following warning is generated

on module load:

[ 324.701677] BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:578

[ 324.701684] in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 1582, name: NetworkManager

[ 324.701689] preempt_count: 201, expected: 0

[ 324.701693] RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0

[ 324.701697] 2 locks held by NetworkManager/1582:

[ 324.701702] #0: ffffffff9f7be770 (rtnl_mutex){....}-{3:3}, at: rtnl_newlink+0x791/0x21e0

[ 324.701730] #1: ff1100216c380368 (_xmit_ETHER){....}-{2:2}, at: __dev_open+0x3f0/0x870

[ 324.701749] Preemption disabled at:

[ 324.701752] [<ffffffff9cd23b9d>] __dev_open+0x3dd/0x870

[ 324.701765] CPU: 30 UID: 0 PID: 1582 Comm: NetworkManager Not tainted 6.15.0-rc5+ #2 PREEMPT(voluntary)

[ 324.701771] Hardware name: Intel Corporation M50FCP2SBSTD/M50FCP2SBSTD, BIOS SE5C741.86B.01.01.0001.2211140926 11/14/2022

[ 324.701774] Call Trace:

[ 324.701777] <TASK>

[ 324.701779] dump_stack_lvl+0x5d/0x80

[ 324.701788] ? __dev_open+0x3dd/0x870

[ 324.701793] __might_resched.cold+0x1ef/0x23d

<..>

[ 324.701818] __mutex_lock+0x113/0x1b80

<..>

[ 324.701917] idpf_ctlq_clean_sq+0xad/0x4b0 [idpf]

[ 324.701935] ? kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30

[ 324.701941] idpf_mb_clean+0x143/0x380 [idpf]

<..>

[ 324.701991] idpf_send_mb_msg+0x111/0x720 [idpf]

[ 324.702009] idpf_vc_xn_exec+0x4cc/0x990 [idpf]

[ 324.702021] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0xc0

[ 324.702035] idpf_add_del_mac_filters+0x3ed/0xb50 [idpf]

<..>

[ 324.702122] __hw_addr_sync_dev+0x1cf/0x300

[ 324.702126] ? find_held_lock+0x32/0x90

[ 324.702134] idpf_set_rx_mode+0x317/0x390 [idpf]

[ 324.702152] __dev_open+0x3f8/0x870

[ 324.702159] ? __pfx___dev_open+0x10/0x10

[ 324.702174] __dev_change_flags+0x443/0x650

<..>

[ 324.702208] netif_change_flags+0x80/0x160

[ 324.702218] do_setlink.isra.0+0x16a0/0x3960

<..>

[ 324.702349] rtnl_newlink+0x12fd/0x21e0

The sequence is as follows:

rtnl_newlink()->

__dev_change_flags()->

__dev_open()->

dev_set_rx_mode() - > # disables BH and grabs "dev->addr_list_lock"

idpf_set_rx_mode() -> # proceed only if VIRTCHNL2_CAP_MACFILTER is ON

__dev_uc_sync() ->

idpf_add_mac_filter ->

idpf_add_del_mac_filters ->

idpf_send_mb_msg() ->

idpf_mb_clean() ->

idpf_ctlq_clean_sq() # mutex_lock(cq_lock)

Fix by converting cq_lock to a spinlock. All operations under the new

lock are safe except freeing the DMA memory, which may use vunmap(). Fix

by requesting a contiguous physical memory for the DMA mapping.

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 none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

CVE-2025-38392 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.13.0 up to 6.15.6)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 25 July 2025 and last revised on 15 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 (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

CVE-2025-38392 on other distributions

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

Details

Severity Medium
CVSS Score 5.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-07-25
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-07-15

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.13.0 6.15.6
linux-kernel — —

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