# CVE-2025-37772: RDMA/cma: Fix workqueue crash in cma_netevent_work_handler

> A race condition in the Linux kernel RDMA subsystem allows a local attacker to trigger a kernel crash via rapid network events.

- **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-2025-37772, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37772, GHSA-frjr-3w6j-qh2v, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37772, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-37772, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37772

## What is CVE-2025-37772?

CVE-2025-37772 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:

RDMA/cma: Fix workqueue crash in cma_netevent_work_handler

struct rdma_cm_id has member "struct work_struct net_work"
that is reused for enqueuing cma_netevent_work_handler()s
onto cma_wq.

Below crash[1] can occur if more than one call to
cma_netevent_callback() occurs in quick succession,
which further enqueues cma_netevent_work_handler()s for the
same rdma_cm_id, overwriting any previously queued work-item(s)
that was just scheduled to run i.e. there is no guarantee
the queued work item may run between two successive calls
to cma_netevent_callback() and the 2nd INIT_WORK would overwrite
the 1st work item (for the same rdma_cm_id), despite grabbing
id_table_lock during enqueue.

Also drgn analysis [2] indicates the work item was likely overwritten.

Fix this by moving the INIT_WORK() to __rdma_create_id(),
so that it doesn't race with any existing queue_work() or
its worker thread.

[1] Trimmed crash stack:
=============================================
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008
kworker/u256:6 ... 6.12.0-0...
Workqueue:  cma_netevent_work_handler [rdma_cm] (rdma_cm)
RIP: 0010:process_one_work+0xba/0x31a
Call Trace:
 worker_thread+0x266/0x3a0
 kthread+0xcf/0x100
 ret_from_fork+0x31/0x50
 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
=============================================

[2] drgn crash analysis:

>>> trace = prog.crashed_thread().stack_trace()
>>> trace
(0)  crash_setup_regs (./arch/x86/include/asm/kexec.h:111:15)
(1)  __crash_kexec (kernel/crash_core.c:122:4)
(2)  panic (kernel/panic.c:399:3)
(3)  oops_end (arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c:382:3)
...
(8)  process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3168:2)
(9)  process_scheduled_works (kernel/workqueue.c:3310:3)
(10) worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3391:4)
(11) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:389:9)

Line workqueue.c:3168 for this kernel version is in process_one_work():
3168	strscpy(worker->desc, pwq->wq->name, WORKER_DESC_LEN);

>>> trace[8]["work"]
*(struct work_struct *)0xffff92577d0a21d8 = {
	.data = (atomic_long_t){
		.counter = (s64)536870912,    <=== Note
	},
	.entry = (struct list_head){
		.next = (struct list_head *)0xffff924d075924c0,
		.prev = (struct list_head *)0xffff924d075924c0,
	},
	.func = (work_func_t)cma_netevent_work_handler+0x0 = 0xffffffffc2cec280,
}

Suspicion is that pwq is NULL:
>>> trace[8]["pwq"]
(struct pool_workqueue *)<absent>

In process_one_work(), pwq is assigned from:
struct pool_workqueue *pwq = get_work_pwq(work);

and get_work_pwq() is:
static struct pool_workqueue *get_work_pwq(struct work_struct *work)
{
 	unsigned long data = atomic_long_read(&work->data);

 	if (data & WORK_STRUCT_PWQ)
 		return work_struct_pwq(data);
 	else
 		return NULL;
}

WORK_STRUCT_PWQ is 0x4:
>>> print(repr(prog['WORK_STRUCT_PWQ']))
Object(prog, 'enum work_flags', value=4)

But work->data is 536870912 which is 0x20000000.
So, get_work_pwq() returns NULL and we crash in process_one_work():
3168	strscpy(worker->desc, pwq->wq->name, WORKER_DESC_LEN);
=============================================

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37772?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-37772?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-37772 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37772 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-37772 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-37772 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-2025-37772 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-2025-37772/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37772/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-37772
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37772
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-37772

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37772/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
