Linux Kernel up to 6.12.18/6.13.6 deadlock

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.18/6.13.6 and classified as critical. This impacts an unknown function. This manipulation causes deadlock. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-21911. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.18/6.13.6. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown part. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a deadlock vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-833. The product contains multiple threads or executable segments that are waiting for each other to release a necessary lock, resulting in deadlock. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/imagination: avoid deadlock on fence release Do scheduler queue fence release processing on a workqueue, rather than in the release function itself. Fixes deadlock issues such as the following: [ 607.400437] ============================================ [ 607.405755] WARNING: possible recursive locking detected [ 607.415500] -------------------------------------------- [ 607.420817] weston:zfq0/24149 is trying to acquire lock: [ 607.426131] ffff000017d041a0 (reservation_ww_class_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: pvr_gem_object_vunmap+0x40/0xc0 [powervr] [ 607.436728] but task is already holding lock: [ 607.442554] ffff000017d105a0 (reservation_ww_class_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: dma_buf_ioctl+0x250/0x554 [ 607.451727] other info that might help us debug this: [ 607.458245] Possible unsafe locking scenario: [ 607.464155] CPU0 [ 607.466601] ---- [ 607.469044] lock(reservation_ww_class_mutex); [ 607.473584] lock(reservation_ww_class_mutex); [ 607.478114] *** DEADLOCK ***

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21911 since 12/29/2024. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 241070 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS : Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities (USN-7606-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.19 or 6.13.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch d993ae7360923efd6ade43a32043459a121c28c1/9bd8b8d34cf4efba18766d64f817c819ed1bbde7/df1a1ed5e1bdd9cc13148e0e5549f5ebcf76cf13 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (241070) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0683). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM Security Verify Access

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.13.0
• 6.13.1
• 6.13.2
• 6.13.3
• 6.13.4
• 6.13.5
• 6.13.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion