CVE-2025-37968 iio: light: opt3001: fix deadlock due to concurrent flag access
A race condition in the Linux kernel opt3001 light sensor driver can cause a deadlock, leading to a 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-2025-37968?
CVE-2025-37968 is a medium-severity 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:
iio: light: opt3001: fix deadlock due to concurrent flag access
The threaded IRQ function in this driver is reading the flag twice: once to lock a mutex and once to unlock it. Even though the code setting the flag is designed to prevent it, there are subtle cases where the flag could be true at the mutex_lock stage and false at the mutex_unlock stage. This results in the mutex not being unlocked, resulting in a deadlock.
Fix it by making the opt3001_irq() code generally more robust, reading the flag into a variable and using the variable value at both stages.
Weakness: CWE-667
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37968?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-37968?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-37968 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37968 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-37968, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37968, GHSA-ggj2-v6c6-rgh4, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-37968, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37968, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-37968 and 2 more.