VDB-312869 · CVE-2025-38040 · Nessus 241773

Linux Kernel up to 6.1.140/6.6.92/6.12.30/6.14.8 kernel/irq/manage.c in_atomic stack-based overflow

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6.6	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.140/6.6.92/6.12.30/6.14.8. The impacted element is the function in_atomic of the file kernel/irq/manage.c. The manipulation leads to stack-based overflow. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-38040. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.140/6.6.92/6.12.30/6.14.8. This issue affects the function in_atomic of the file kernel/irq/manage.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a stack-based overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-121. A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function). Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: mctrl_gpio: split disable_ms into sync and no_sync APIs The following splat has been observed on a SAMA5D27 platform using atmel_serial: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/irq/manage.c:738 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 128, non_block: 0, pid: 27, name: kworker/u5:0 preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 INFO: lockdep is turned off. irq event stamp: 0 hardirqs last enabled at (0): [<00000000>] 0x0 hardirqs last disabled at (0): [<c01588f0>] copy_process+0x1c4c/0x7bec softirqs last enabled at (0): [<c0158944>] copy_process+0x1ca0/0x7bec softirqs last disabled at (0): [<00000000>] 0x0 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 27 Comm: kworker/u5:0 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc7+ #74 Hardware name: Atmel SAMA5 Workqueue: hci0 hci_power_on [bluetooth] Call trace: unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x44/0x70 dump_stack_lvl from __might_resched+0x38c/0x598 __might_resched from disable_irq+0x1c/0x48 disable_irq from mctrl_gpio_disable_ms+0x74/0xc0 mctrl_gpio_disable_ms from atmel_disable_ms.part.0+0x80/0x1f4 atmel_disable_ms.part.0 from atmel_set_termios+0x764/0x11e8 atmel_set_termios from uart_change_line_settings+0x15c/0x994 uart_change_line_settings from uart_set_termios+0x2b0/0x668 uart_set_termios from tty_set_termios+0x600/0x8ec tty_set_termios from ttyport_set_flow_control+0x188/0x1e0 ttyport_set_flow_control from wilc_setup+0xd0/0x524 [hci_wilc] wilc_setup [hci_wilc] from hci_dev_open_sync+0x330/0x203c [bluetooth] hci_dev_open_sync [bluetooth] from hci_dev_do_open+0x40/0xb0 [bluetooth] hci_dev_do_open [bluetooth] from hci_power_on+0x12c/0x664 [bluetooth] hci_power_on [bluetooth] from process_one_work+0x998/0x1a38 process_one_work from worker_thread+0x6e0/0xfb4 worker_thread from kthread+0x3d4/0x484 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x28 This warning is emitted when trying to toggle, at the highest level, some flow control (with serdev_device_set_flow_control) in a device driver. At the lowest level, the atmel_serial driver is using serial_mctrl_gpio lib to enable/disable the corresponding IRQs accordingly. The warning emitted by CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP is due to disable_irq (called in mctrl_gpio_disable_ms) being possibly called in some atomic context (some tty drivers perform modem lines configuration in regions protected by port lock). Split mctrl_gpio_disable_ms into two differents APIs, a non-blocking one and a blocking one. Replace mctrl_gpio_disable_ms calls with the relevant version depending on whether the call is protected by some port lock.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-38040 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 02/02/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 241773 (Amazon Linux 2023 : bpftool, kernel6.12, kernel6.12-modules-extra (ALAS2023-2025-1052)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.141, 6.6.93, 6.12.31 or 6.14.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 68435c1fa3db696db4f480385db9e50e26691d0d/c504c11b94d6e4ad818ca5578dffa8ff29ad0f20/e6a46719a2369eb5186d4f7e6c0478720ca1ec3d/7187ec6b0b9ff22ebac2c3bb4178b7dbbdc0a55a/1bd2aad57da95f7f2d2bb52f7ad15c0f4993a685 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 (241773) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1350). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

Debian Linux
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
SUSE openSUSE
Open Source Linux Kernel
RESF Rocky Linux
Dell Avamar
Dell NetWorker
Dell Secure Connect Gateway
IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

Operating System

Vendor

Linux

Name

Kernel

Version

License

open-source

Website

Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 6.8
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 6.6

VulDB Base Score: 8.0
VulDB Temp Score: 7.6
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
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Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Stack-based overflow
CWE: CWE-121 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍