CVEvulnerability
CVE-2025-38305
5.5 MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Status
- Analyzed
- Published
- 2025-07-10
- Last modified
- 2026-06-17
- Assigner
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
- CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
- 5.5 MEDIUM — CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ptp: remove ptp->n_vclocks check logic in ptp_vclock_in_use()
There is no disagreement that we should check both ptp->is_virtual_clock
and ptp->n_vclocks to check if the ptp virtual clock is in use.
However, when we acquire ptp->n_vclocks_mux to read ptp->n_vclocks in
ptp_vclock_in_use(), we observe a recursive lock in the call trace
starting from n_vclocks_store().
============================================
WARNING: possible recursive locking detected
6.15.0-rc6 #1 Not tainted
--------------------------------------------
syz.0.1540/13807 is trying to acquire lock:
ffff888035a24868 (&ptp->n_vclocks_mux){+.+.}-{4:4}, at:
ptp_vclock_in_use drivers/ptp/ptp_private.h:103 [inline]
ffff888035a24868 (&ptp->n_vclocks_mux){+.+.}-{4:4}, at:
ptp_clock_unregister+0x21/0x250 drivers/ptp/ptp_clock.c:415
but task is already holding lock:
ffff888030704868 (&ptp->n_vclocks_mux){+.+.}-{4:4}, at:
n_vclocks_store+0xf1/0x6d0 drivers/ptp/ptp_sysfs.c:215
other info that might help us debug this:
Possible unsafe locking scenario:
CPU0
----
lock(&ptp->n_vclocks_mux);
lock(&ptp->n_vclocks_mux);
*** DEADLOCK ***
....
============================================
The best way to solve this is to remove the logic that checks
ptp->n_vclocks in ptp_vclock_in_use().
The reason why this is appropriate is that any path that uses
ptp->n_vclocks must unconditionally check if ptp->n_vclocks is greater
than 0 before unregistering vclocks, and all functions are already
written this way. And in the function that uses ptp->n_vclocks, we
already get ptp->n_vclocks_mux before unregistering vclocks.
Therefore, we need to remove the redundant check for ptp->n_vclocks in
ptp_vclock_in_use() to prevent recursive locking.
Affected configurations
• linux linux kernel (>= 5.14.1 < 5.15.186)
• linux linux kernel (>= 5.16 < 6.1.142)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.2 < 6.6.94)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.7 < 6.12.34)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.13 < 6.15.3)
• linux linux kernel 5.14
• linux linux kernel 6.16
• debian debian linux 11.0
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/259119595227fd20f6aa29d85abe086b6fdd9eb1 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5d217e7031a5c06d366580fc6ddbf43527b780d4 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/87f7ce260a3c838b49e1dc1ceedf1006795157a2 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1b73c452331451020be3bf4b014901015ae6663 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b93e6fef4eda48e17d9c642b9abad98a066fd4a3 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ef8fc007c28a30a4c0d90bf755e0f343d99bb392 Patch
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html Third Party Advisory