CVE-2025-37928 dm-bufio: don't schedule in atomic context

High 7.8 Published Updated

A bug in the Linux kernel dm-bufio module causes a crash when scheduling occurs in atomic context, leading to denial of service.

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

What is CVE-2025-37928?

CVE-2025-37928 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 20 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:

dm-bufio: don't schedule in atomic context

A BUG was reported as below when CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP and try_verify_in_tasklet are enabled. [ 129.444685][ T934] BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at drivers/md/dm-bufio.c:2421 [ 129.444723][ T934] in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 934, name: kworker/1:4 [ 129.444740][ T934] preempt_count: 201, expected: 0 [ 129.444756][ T934] RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 [ 129.444781][ T934] Preemption disabled at: [ 129.444789][ T934] [<ffffffd816231900>] shrink_work+0x21c/0x248 [ 129.445167][ T934] kernel BUG at kernel/sched/walt/walt_debug.c:16! [ 129.445183][ T934] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] PREEMPT SMP [ 129.445204][ T934] Skip md ftrace buffer dump for: 0x1609e0 [ 129.447348][ T934] CPU: 1 PID: 934 Comm: kworker/1:4 Tainted: G W OE 6.6.56-android15-8-o-g6f82312b30b9-debug #1 1400000003000000474e5500b3187743670464e8 [ 129.447362][ T934] Hardware name: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Parrot QRD, Alpha-M (DT) [ 129.447373][ T934] Workqueue: dm_bufio_cache shrink_work [ 129.447394][ T934] pstate: 60400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 129.447406][ T934] pc : android_rvh_schedule_bug+0x0/0x8 [sched_walt_debug] [ 129.447435][ T934] lr : __traceiter_android_rvh_schedule_bug+0x44/0x6c [ 129.447451][ T934] sp : ffffffc0843dbc90 [ 129.447459][ T934] x29: ffffffc0843dbc90 x28: ffffffffffffffff x27: 0000000000000c8b [ 129.447479][ T934] x26: 0000000000000040 x25: ffffff804b3d6260 x24: ffffffd816232b68 [ 129.447497][ T934] x23: ffffff805171c5b4 x22: 0000000000000000 x21: ffffffd816231900 [ 129.447517][ T934] x20: ffffff80306ba898 x19: 0000000000000000 x18: ffffffc084159030 [ 129.447535][ T934] x17: 00000000d2b5dd1f x16: 00000000d2b5dd1f x15: ffffffd816720358 [ 129.447554][ T934] x14: 0000000000000004 x13: ffffff89ef978000 x12: 0000000000000003 [ 129.447572][ T934] x11: ffffffd817a823c4 x10: 0000000000000202 x9 : 7e779c5735de9400 [ 129.447591][ T934] x8 : ffffffd81560d004 x7 : 205b5d3938373434 x6 : ffffffd8167397c8 [ 129.447610][ T934] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000001 x3 : ffffffc0843db9e0 [ 129.447629][ T934] x2 : 0000000000002f15 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 129.447647][ T934] Call trace: [ 129.447655][ T934] android_rvh_schedule_bug+0x0/0x8 [sched_walt_debug 1400000003000000474e550080cce8a8a78606b6] [ 129.447681][ T934] __might_resched+0x190/0x1a8 [ 129.447694][ T934] shrink_work+0x180/0x248 [ 129.447706][ T934] process_one_work+0x260/0x624 [ 129.447718][ T934] worker_thread+0x28c/0x454 [ 129.447729][ T934] kthread+0x118/0x158 [ 129.447742][ T934] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 129.447761][ T934] Code: ???????? ???????? ???????? d2b5dd1f (d4210000) [ 129.447772][ T934] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

dm_bufio_lock will call spin_lock_bh when try_verify_in_tasklet is enabled, and __scan will be called in atomic context.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37928?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-37928?

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-2025-37928 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37928 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry.

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-37928, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37928, GHSA-pq22-mrc2-gx83, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-37928, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37928, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-37928 and 2 more.

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