CVE-2025-38017 fs/eventpoll: fix endless busy loop after timeout has expired

What is CVE-2025-38017?

CVE-2025-38017 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 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:

fs/eventpoll: fix endless busy loop after timeout has expired

After commit 0a65bc27bd64 ("eventpoll: Set epoll timeout if it's in the future"), the following program would immediately enter a busy loop in the kernel:

``` int main() { int e = epoll_create1(0); struct epoll_event event = {.events = EPOLLIN}; epoll_ctl(e, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 0, &event); const struct timespec timeout = {.tv_nsec = 1}; epoll_pwait2(e, &event, 1, &timeout, 0); } ```

This happens because the given (non-zero) timeout of 1 nanosecond usually expires before ep_poll() is entered and then ep_schedule_timeout() returns false, but `timed_out` is never set because the code line that sets it is skipped. This quickly turns into a soft lockup, RCU stalls and deadlocks, inflicting severe headaches to the whole system.

When the timeout has expired, we don't need to schedule a hrtimer, but we should set the `timed_out` variable. Therefore, I suggest moving the ep_schedule_timeout() check into the `timed_out` expression instead of skipping it.

brauner: Note that there was an earlier fix by Joe Damato in response to my bug report in [1].

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38017?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38017?

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-2025-38017 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38017 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-hv9m-xg7c-9q4v, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38017.