Linux Kernel up to 6.1.158/6.6.116/6.12.57/6.17.7 pci_cfg_access_lock deadlock

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.158/6.6.116/6.12.57/6.17.7 and classified as critical. The impacted element is the function pci_cfg_access_lock. This manipulation causes deadlock. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-68310. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.158/6.6.116/6.12.57/6.17.7. Affected by this vulnerability is the function pci_cfg_access_lock. 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: s390/pci: Avoid deadlock between PCI error recovery and mlx5 crdump Do not block PCI config accesses through pci_cfg_access_lock() when executing the s390 variant of PCI error recovery: Acquire just device_lock() instead of pci_dev_lock() as powerpc's EEH and generig PCI AER processing do. During error recovery testing a pair of tasks was reported to be hung: mlx5_core 0000:00:00.1: mlx5_health_try_recover:338:(pid 5553): health recovery flow aborted, PCI reads still not working INFO: task kmcheck:72 blocked for more than 122 seconds. Not tainted 5.14.0-570.12.1.bringup7.el9.s390x #1 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:kmcheck state:D stack:0 pid:72 tgid:72 ppid:2 flags:0x00000000 Call Trace: [<000000065256f030>] __schedule+0x2a0/0x590 [<000000065256f356>] schedule+0x36/0xe0 [<000000065256f572>] schedule_preempt_disabled+0x22/0x30 [<0000000652570a94>] __mutex_lock.constprop.0+0x484/0x8a8 [<000003ff800673a4>] mlx5_unload_one+0x34/0x58 [mlx5_core] [<000003ff8006745c>] mlx5_pci_err_detected+0x94/0x140 [mlx5_core] [<0000000652556c5a>] zpci_event_attempt_error_recovery+0xf2/0x398 [<0000000651b9184a>] __zpci_event_error+0x23a/0x2c0 INFO: task kworker/u1664:6:1514 blocked for more than 122 seconds. Not tainted 5.14.0-570.12.1.bringup7.el9.s390x #1 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:kworker/u1664:6 state:D stack:0 pid:1514 tgid:1514 ppid:2 flags:0x00000000 Workqueue: mlx5_health0000:00:00.0 mlx5_fw_fatal_reporter_err_work [mlx5_core] Call Trace: [<000000065256f030>] __schedule+0x2a0/0x590 [<000000065256f356>] schedule+0x36/0xe0 [<0000000652172e28>] pci_wait_cfg+0x80/0xe8 [<0000000652172f94>] pci_cfg_access_lock+0x74/0x88 [<000003ff800916b6>] mlx5_vsc_gw_lock+0x36/0x178 [mlx5_core] [<000003ff80098824>] mlx5_crdump_collect+0x34/0x1c8 [mlx5_core] [<000003ff80074b62>] mlx5_fw_fatal_reporter_dump+0x6a/0xe8 [mlx5_core] [<0000000652512242>] devlink_health_do_dump.part.0+0x82/0x168 [<0000000652513212>] devlink_health_report+0x19a/0x230 [<000003ff80075a12>] mlx5_fw_fatal_reporter_err_work+0xba/0x1b0 [mlx5_core] No kernel log of the exact same error with an upstream kernel is available - but the very same deadlock situation can be constructed there, too: - task: kmcheck mlx5_unload_one() tries to acquire devlink lock while the PCI error recovery code has set pdev->block_cfg_access by way of pci_cfg_access_lock() - task: kworker mlx5_crdump_collect() tries to set block_cfg_access through pci_cfg_access_lock() while devlink_health_report() had acquired the devlink lock. A similar deadlock situation can be reproduced by requesting a crdump with > devlink health dump show pci/<BDF> reporter fw_fatal while PCI error recovery is executed on the same <BDF> physical function by mlx5_core's pci_error_handlers. On s390 this can be injected with > zpcictl --reset-fw <BDF> Tests with this patch failed to reproduce that second deadlock situation, the devlink command is rejected with "kernel answers: Permission denied" - and we get a kernel log message of: mlx5_core 1ed0:00:00.1: mlx5_crdump_collect:50:(pid 254382): crdump: failed to lock vsc gw err -5 because the config read of VSC_SEMAPHORE is rejected by the underlying hardware. Two prior attempts to address this issue have been discussed and ultimately rejected [see link], with the primary argument that s390's implementation of PCI error recovery is imposing restrictions that neither powerpc's EEH nor PCI AER handling need. Tests show that PCI error recovery on s390 is running to completion even without blocking access to PCI config space.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-68310 since 12/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 298897 (Ubuntu 25.10 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-8029-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.159, 6.6.117, 6.12.58 or 6.17.8 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch d0df2503bc3c2be385ca2fd96585daad1870c7c5/b63c061be622b17b495cbf78a6d5f2d4c3147f8e/3591d56ea9bfd3e7fbbe70f749bdeed689d415f9/54f938d9f5693af8ed586a08db4af5d9da1f0f2d/0fd20f65df6aa430454a0deed8f43efa91c54835 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 (298897) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2868). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.158
• 6.6.116
• 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
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.17.0
• 6.17.1
• 6.17.2
• 6.17.3
• 6.17.4
• 6.17.5
• 6.17.6
• 6.17.7

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Entryinfo

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