# CVE-2025-38104: drm/amdgpu: Replace Mutex with Spinlock for RLCG register access to avoid Priority Inversion in SRIOV > A race condition in the AMD GPU driver causes priority inversion and kernel bugs during virtualized register access, potentially leading to system crashes. - **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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 Apr 2025 - **Updated:** 23 May 2026 - **Also known as:** AZL-69643, BELL-CVE-2025-38104, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38104, GHSA-qv4f-mr6g-r994, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38104, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38104, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38104 ## What is CVE-2025-38104? CVE-2025-38104 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Apr 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: drm/amdgpu: Replace Mutex with Spinlock for RLCG register access to avoid Priority Inversion in SRIOV RLCG Register Access is a way for virtual functions to safely access GPU registers in a virtualized environment., including TLB flushes and register reads. When multiple threads or VFs try to access the same registers simultaneously, it can lead to race conditions. By using the RLCG interface, the driver can serialize access to the registers. This means that only one thread can access the registers at a time, preventing conflicts and ensuring that operations are performed correctly. Additionally, when a low-priority task holds a mutex that a high-priority task needs, ie., If a thread holding a spinlock tries to acquire a mutex, it can lead to priority inversion. register access in amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw especially in a fast code path is critical. The call stack shows that the function amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw is being called, which attempts to acquire the mutex. This function is invoked from amdgpu_sriov_wreg, which in turn is called from gmc_v11_0_flush_gpu_tlb. The [ BUG: Invalid wait context ] indicates that a thread is trying to acquire a mutex while it is in a context that does not allow it to sleep (like holding a spinlock). Fixes the below: [ 253.013423] ============================= [ 253.013434] [ BUG: Invalid wait context ] [ 253.013446] 6.12.0-amdstaging-drm-next-lol-050225 #14 Tainted: G U OE [ 253.013464] ----------------------------- [ 253.013475] kworker/0:1/10 is trying to lock: [ 253.013487] ffff9f30542e3cf8 (&adev->virt.rlcg_reg_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.013815] other info that might help us debug this: [ 253.013827] context-{4:4} [ 253.013835] 3 locks held by kworker/0:1/10: [ 253.013847] #0: ffff9f3040050f58 ((wq_completion)events){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x3f5/0x680 [ 253.013877] #1: ffffb789c008be40 ((work_completion)(&wfc.work)){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x1d6/0x680 [ 253.013905] #2: ffff9f3054281838 (&adev->gmc.invalidate_lock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: gmc_v11_0_flush_gpu_tlb+0x198/0x4f0 [amdgpu] [ 253.014154] stack backtrace: [ 253.014164] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 10 Comm: kworker/0:1 Tainted: G U OE 6.12.0-amdstaging-drm-next-lol-050225 #14 [ 253.014189] Tainted: [U]=USER, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE [ 253.014203] Hardware name: Microsoft Corporation Virtual Machine/Virtual Machine, BIOS Hyper-V UEFI Release v4.1 11/18/2024 [ 253.014224] Workqueue: events work_for_cpu_fn [ 253.014241] Call Trace: [ 253.014250] [ 253.014260] dump_stack_lvl+0x9b/0xf0 [ 253.014275] dump_stack+0x10/0x20 [ 253.014287] __lock_acquire+0xa47/0x2810 [ 253.014303] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.014321] lock_acquire+0xd1/0x300 [ 253.014333] ? amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.014562] ? __lock_acquire+0xa6b/0x2810 [ 253.014578] __mutex_lock+0x85/0xe20 [ 253.014591] ? amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.014782] ? sched_clock_noinstr+0x9/0x10 [ 253.014795] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.014808] ? local_clock_noinstr+0xe/0xc0 [ 253.014822] ? amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.015012] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.015029] mutex_lock_nested+0x1b/0x30 [ 253.015044] ? mutex_lock_nested+0x1b/0x30 [ 253.015057] amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.015249] amdgpu_sriov_wreg+0xc5/0xd0 [amdgpu] [ 253.015435] gmc_v11_0_flush_gpu_tlb+0x44b/0x4f0 [amdgpu] [ 253.015667] gfx_v11_0_hw_init+0x499/0x29c0 [amdgpu] [ 253.015901] ? __pfx_smu_v13_0_update_pcie_parameters+0x10/0x10 [amdgpu] [ 253.016159] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.016173] ? smu_hw_init+0x18d/0x300 [amdgpu] [ 253.016403] amdgpu_device_init+0x29ad/0x36a0 [amdgpu] [ 253.016614] amdgpu_driver_load_kms+0x1a/0xc0 [amdgpu] [ 253.0170 ---truncated--- Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38104? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2025-38104? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2025-38104 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38104 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel - [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38104 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2025-38104 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Apr 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-2025-38104 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2025-38104/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38104/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38104 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38104 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38104 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38104/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.