CVE-2025-38349

Published Jul 18, 2025

Last updated 21 days ago

CVSS high 7.8

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: eventpoll: don't decrement ep refcount while still holding the ep mutex Jann Horn points out that epoll is decrementing the ep refcount and then doing a mutex_unlock(&ep->mtx); afterwards. That's very wrong, because it can lead to a use-after-free. That pattern is actually fine for the very last reference, because the code in question will delay the actual call to "ep_free(ep)" until after it has unlocked the mutex. But it's wrong for the much subtler "next to last" case when somebody *else* may also be dropping their reference and free the ep while we're still using the mutex. Note that this is true even if that other user is also using the same ep mutex: mutexes, unlike spinlocks, can not be used for object ownership, even if they guarantee mutual exclusion. A mutex "unlock" operation is not atomic, and as one user is still accessing the mutex as part of unlocking it, another user can come in and get the now released mutex and free the data structure while the first user is still cleaning up. See our mutex documentation in Documentation/locking/mutex-design.rst, in particular the section [1] about semantics: "mutex_unlock() may access the mutex structure even after it has internally released the lock already - so it's not safe for another context to acquire the mutex and assume that the mutex_unlock() context is not using the structure anymore" So if we drop our ep ref before the mutex unlock, but we weren't the last one, we may then unlock the mutex, another user comes in, drops _their_ reference and releases the 'ep' as it now has no users - all while the mutex_unlock() is still accessing it. Fix this by simply moving the ep refcount dropping to outside the mutex: the refcount itself is atomic, and doesn't need mutex protection (that's the whole _point_ of refcounts: unlike mutexes, they are inherently about object lifetimes).
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Modified
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
7.8
Impact score
5.9
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity
HIGH

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-416

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

  1. CVE-2025-38349 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: eventpoll: don't decrement ep refcount while still holding the ep mutex Jann Horn points out tha… https://t.co/iB7CScXFmi

    @CVEnew

    18 Jul 2025

    416 Impressions

    0 Retweets

    2 Likes

    0 Bookmarks

    0 Replies

    0 Quotes

Configurations

Related CVEs

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: x86/mmu: Check write tracking in all address spaces kvm_gfn_is_write_tracked() checks only the supplied memslot, but page tracking is per-address-space and shadow pages are shared across all address spaces. With SMM, a GFN can therefore be write-tracked in one address space and appear untracked through the other. Check the supplied slot first, then the slot for the other address space. This ensures all callers honor write tracking regardless of the active address space. In particular, it prevents mmu_try_to_unsync_pages() from marking an upper-level shadow page unsync and eventually triggering the BUG in pte_list_remove(). [invert direction of the conditional. - Paolo]•CVE-2026-98164
  2. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)•CVE-2026-98163
  3. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb/server: fix tree connection leak in smb2_tree_connect() See the procedure below: smb2_tree_connect ksmbd_tree_conn_connect xa_store(&sess->tree_conns, tree_conn->id, tree_conn) ksmbd_counter_inc(KSMBD_COUNTER_TREE_CONNS) ksmbd_share_tree_conn_inc(sc) ksmbd_iov_pin_rsp // fail status.ret = KSMBD_TREE_CONN_STATUS_NOMEM // do not disconnect tree_conn Disconnect the new tree connection if ksmbd_iov_pin_rsp() fails.•CVE-2026-98162
  4. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nvdimm: pmem: keep PREFLUSH before data writes pmem_submit_bio() records a REQ_PREFLUSH error, but continues to copy the bio data and can later overwrite the error with a successful REQ_FUA flush. That lets data writes run after a failed preflush and can complete the bio successfully despite the failed ordering barrier. Run the REQ_PREFLUSH flush synchronously before touching the bio data and complete the bio with the flush error if it fails. Keep asynchronous flush chaining for REQ_FUA. At that point, data copy has completed and the parent bio can wait for the chained flush bio.•CVE-2026-98161
  5. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: staging: rtl8723bs: fix mismatched free of HalData in rtw_sdio_if1_init() padapter->HalData is allocated via vzalloc(), but incorrectly freed using kfree() in the rtw_sdio_if1_init() error path. Using kfree() to release this vmalloc-backed buffer can lead to memory corruption. Use rtw_hal_data_deinit() to pair the free correctly and free HalData with vfree(). The bug was first flagged by an experimental static analysis tool we are developing for kernel memory-management bugs. Manual inspection confirms that the issue is still present in current mainline. An x86_64 allyesconfig build showed no new warnings. As we do not have suitable RTL8723BS SDIO hardware to test with, no runtime testing was able to be performed.•CVE-2026-98160

References

Sources include official advisories and independent security research.