CVE-2025-21767 clocksource: Use migrate_disable() to avoid calling get_random_u32() in atomic context

What is CVE-2025-21767?

CVE-2025-21767 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

clocksource: Use migrate_disable() to avoid calling get_random_u32() in atomic context

The following bug report happened with a PREEMPT_RT kernel:

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:48 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 2012, name: kwatchdog preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 get_random_u32+0x4f/0x110 clocksource_verify_choose_cpus+0xab/0x1a0 clocksource_verify_percpu.part.0+0x6b/0x330 clocksource_watchdog_kthread+0x193/0x1a0

It is due to the fact that clocksource_verify_choose_cpus() is invoked with preemption disabled. This function invokes get_random_u32() to obtain random numbers for choosing CPUs. The batched_entropy_32 local lock and/or the base_crng.lock spinlock in driver/char/random.c will be acquired during the call. In PREEMPT_RT kernel, they are both sleeping locks and so cannot be acquired in atomic context.

Fix this problem by using migrate_disable() to allow smp_processor_id() to be reliably used without introducing atomic context. preempt_disable() is then called after clocksource_verify_choose_cpus() but before the clocksource measurement is being run to avoid introducing unexpected latency.

Weakness: CWE-667

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21767?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-21767?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2025-21767 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21767 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-21767, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21767, GHSA-h97w-34cr-4pxx, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21767, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21767.