# CVE-2025-37917: net: ethernet: mtk-star-emac: fix spinlock recursion issues on rx/tx poll

> A spinlock recursion bug in the MediaTek Star EMAC driver can cause a kernel panic, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 May 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-37917, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37917, GHSA-h8m2-hc42-j2c9, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37917, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-37917, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37917

## What is CVE-2025-37917?

CVE-2025-37917 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 20 May 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

net: ethernet: mtk-star-emac: fix spinlock recursion issues on rx/tx poll

Use spin_lock_irqsave and spin_unlock_irqrestore instead of spin_lock
and spin_unlock in mtk_star_emac driver to avoid spinlock recursion
occurrence that can happen when enabling the DMA interrupts again in
rx/tx poll.

```
BUG: spinlock recursion on CPU#0, swapper/0/0
 lock: 0xffff00000db9cf20, .magic: dead4ead, .owner: swapper/0/0,
    .owner_cpu: 0
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted
    6.15.0-rc2-next-20250417-00001-gf6a27738686c-dirty #28 PREEMPT
Hardware name: MediaTek MT8365 Open Platform EVK (DT)
Call trace:
 show_stack+0x18/0x24 (C)
 dump_stack_lvl+0x60/0x80
 dump_stack+0x18/0x24
 spin_dump+0x78/0x88
 do_raw_spin_lock+0x11c/0x120
 _raw_spin_lock+0x20/0x2c
 mtk_star_handle_irq+0xc0/0x22c [mtk_star_emac]
 __handle_irq_event_percpu+0x48/0x140
 handle_irq_event+0x4c/0xb0
 handle_fasteoi_irq+0xa0/0x1bc
 handle_irq_desc+0x34/0x58
 generic_handle_domain_irq+0x1c/0x28
 gic_handle_irq+0x4c/0x120
 do_interrupt_handler+0x50/0x84
 el1_interrupt+0x34/0x68
 el1h_64_irq_handler+0x18/0x24
 el1h_64_irq+0x6c/0x70
 regmap_mmio_read32le+0xc/0x20 (P)
 _regmap_bus_reg_read+0x6c/0xac
 _regmap_read+0x60/0xdc
 regmap_read+0x4c/0x80
 mtk_star_rx_poll+0x2f4/0x39c [mtk_star_emac]
 __napi_poll+0x38/0x188
 net_rx_action+0x164/0x2c0
 handle_softirqs+0x100/0x244
 __do_softirq+0x14/0x20
 ____do_softirq+0x10/0x20
 call_on_irq_stack+0x24/0x64
 do_softirq_own_stack+0x1c/0x40
 __irq_exit_rcu+0xd4/0x10c
 irq_exit_rcu+0x10/0x1c
 el1_interrupt+0x38/0x68
 el1h_64_irq_handler+0x18/0x24
 el1h_64_irq+0x6c/0x70
 cpuidle_enter_state+0xac/0x320 (P)
 cpuidle_enter+0x38/0x50
 do_idle+0x1e4/0x260
 cpu_startup_entry+0x34/0x3c
 rest_init+0xdc/0xe0
 console_on_rootfs+0x0/0x6c
 __primary_switched+0x88/0x90
```

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37917?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-37917?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-37917 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37917 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

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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-2025-37917 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-37917 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 20 May 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37917 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-2025-37917/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37917/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-37917
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37917
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-37917

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37917/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.