# CVE-2025-38040: serial: mctrl_gpio: split disable_ms into sync and no_sync APIs > A bug in the Linux kernel serial GPIO driver causes a kernel warning and potential instability when disabling modem status interrupts in atomic context. - **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:** 18 Jun 2025 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** AZL-64016, AZL-72751, BELL-CVE-2025-38040, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38040, GHSA-8pcr-p4fc-6g8c, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38040, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38040, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38040, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38040, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38040 ## What is CVE-2025-38040? CVE-2025-38040 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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: serial: mctrl_gpio: split disable_ms into sync and no_sync APIs The following splat has been observed on a SAMA5D27 platform using atmel_serial: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/irq/manage.c:738 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 128, non_block: 0, pid: 27, name: kworker/u5:0 preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 INFO: lockdep is turned off. irq event stamp: 0 hardirqs last enabled at (0): [<00000000>] 0x0 hardirqs last disabled at (0): [] copy_process+0x1c4c/0x7bec softirqs last enabled at (0): [] copy_process+0x1ca0/0x7bec softirqs last disabled at (0): [<00000000>] 0x0 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 27 Comm: kworker/u5:0 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc7+ #74 Hardware name: Atmel SAMA5 Workqueue: hci0 hci_power_on [bluetooth] Call trace: unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x44/0x70 dump_stack_lvl from __might_resched+0x38c/0x598 __might_resched from disable_irq+0x1c/0x48 disable_irq from mctrl_gpio_disable_ms+0x74/0xc0 mctrl_gpio_disable_ms from atmel_disable_ms.part.0+0x80/0x1f4 atmel_disable_ms.part.0 from atmel_set_termios+0x764/0x11e8 atmel_set_termios from uart_change_line_settings+0x15c/0x994 uart_change_line_settings from uart_set_termios+0x2b0/0x668 uart_set_termios from tty_set_termios+0x600/0x8ec tty_set_termios from ttyport_set_flow_control+0x188/0x1e0 ttyport_set_flow_control from wilc_setup+0xd0/0x524 [hci_wilc] wilc_setup [hci_wilc] from hci_dev_open_sync+0x330/0x203c [bluetooth] hci_dev_open_sync [bluetooth] from hci_dev_do_open+0x40/0xb0 [bluetooth] hci_dev_do_open [bluetooth] from hci_power_on+0x12c/0x664 [bluetooth] hci_power_on [bluetooth] from process_one_work+0x998/0x1a38 process_one_work from worker_thread+0x6e0/0xfb4 worker_thread from kthread+0x3d4/0x484 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x28 This warning is emitted when trying to toggle, at the highest level, some flow control (with serdev_device_set_flow_control) in a device driver. At the lowest level, the atmel_serial driver is using serial_mctrl_gpio lib to enable/disable the corresponding IRQs accordingly. The warning emitted by CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP is due to disable_irq (called in mctrl_gpio_disable_ms) being possibly called in some atomic context (some tty drivers perform modem lines configuration in regions protected by port lock). Split mctrl_gpio_disable_ms into two differents APIs, a non-blocking one and a blocking one. Replace mctrl_gpio_disable_ms calls with the relevant version depending on whether the call is protected by some port lock. ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38040? It affects 2 products. Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2025-38040? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2025-38040 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38040 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux - [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild) - [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-2025-38040 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2025-38040 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 18 Jun 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-2025-38040 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-2025-38040/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38040/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38040 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38040 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38040 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38040/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.