# CVE-2025-38355: drm/xe: Process deferred GGTT node removals on device unwind

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's Xe GPU driver causes a null pointer dereference during device unwind, leading to a system crash.

- **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:** 25 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38355, CLSA-2026-1775176186, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38355, GHSA-8x8p-vfxm-77vf, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38355

## What is CVE-2025-38355?

CVE-2025-38355 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jul 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/xe: Process deferred GGTT node removals on device unwind

While we are indirectly draining our dedicated workqueue ggtt->wq
that we use to complete asynchronous removal of some GGTT nodes,
this happends as part of the managed-drm unwinding (ggtt_fini_early),
which could be later then manage-device unwinding, where we could
already unmap our MMIO/GMS mapping (mmio_fini).

This was recently observed during unsuccessful VF initialization:

 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: probe with driver xe failed with error -62
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e747340 __xe_bo_unpin_map_no_vm (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e747540 __xe_bo_unpin_map_no_vm (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e747240 __xe_bo_unpin_map_no_vm (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e747040 tiles_fini (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e746840 mmio_fini (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e747f40 xe_bo_pinned_fini (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: DEVRES REL ffff88811e746b40 devm_drm_dev_init_release (16 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm:drm_managed_release] drmres release begin
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm:drm_managed_release] REL ffff88810ef81640 __fini_relay (8 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm:drm_managed_release] REL ffff88810ef80d40 guc_ct_fini (8 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm:drm_managed_release] REL ffff88810ef80040 __drmm_mutex_release (8 bytes)
 [ ] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm:drm_managed_release] REL ffff88810ef80140 ggtt_fini_early (8 bytes)

and this was leading to:

 [ ] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffc900058162a0
 [ ] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode
 [ ] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page
 [ ] Oops: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP NOPTI
 [ ] Tainted: [W]=WARN
 [ ] Workqueue: xe-ggtt-wq ggtt_node_remove_work_func [xe]
 [ ] RIP: 0010:xe_ggtt_set_pte+0x6d/0x350 [xe]
 [ ] Call Trace:
 [ ]  <TASK>
 [ ]  xe_ggtt_clear+0xb0/0x270 [xe]
 [ ]  ggtt_node_remove+0xbb/0x120 [xe]
 [ ]  ggtt_node_remove_work_func+0x30/0x50 [xe]
 [ ]  process_one_work+0x22b/0x6f0
 [ ]  worker_thread+0x1e8/0x3d

Add managed-device action that will explicitly drain the workqueue
with all pending node removals prior to releasing MMIO/GSM mapping.

(cherry picked from commit 89d2835c3680ab1938e22ad81b1c9f8c686bd391)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38355?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38355?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38355 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38355 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-2025-38355 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38355 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jul 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-2025-38355 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-2025-38355/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38355/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38355
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38355
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38355

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38355/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
