# CVE-2025-23144: backlight: led_bl: Hold led_access lock when calling led_sysfs_disable()

> A missing lock in the Linux kernel LED backlight driver can cause a race condition leading to a system crash during device removal.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 May 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-23144, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-23144, GHSA-3cfh-wr8w-8mhf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-23144, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-23144, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-23144, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-23144

## What is CVE-2025-23144?

CVE-2025-23144 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 1 May 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:

backlight: led_bl: Hold led_access lock when calling led_sysfs_disable()

Lockdep detects the following issue on led-backlight removal:
  [  142.315935] ------------[ cut here ]------------
  [  142.315954] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 292 at drivers/leds/led-core.c:455 led_sysfs_enable+0x54/0x80
  ...
  [  142.500725] Call trace:
  [  142.503176]  led_sysfs_enable+0x54/0x80 (P)
  [  142.507370]  led_bl_remove+0x80/0xa8 [led_bl]
  [  142.511742]  platform_remove+0x30/0x58
  [  142.515501]  device_remove+0x54/0x90
  ...

Indeed, led_sysfs_enable() has to be called with the led_access
lock held.

Hold the lock when calling led_sysfs_disable().

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-23144?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-23144?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-23144 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-23144 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-23144 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-23144 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 1 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-23144 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-23144/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-23144/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-23144
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-23144
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-23144

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-23144/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.