CVE-2025-38372 RDMA/mlx5: Fix unsafe xarray access in implicit ODP handling
A race condition in the Linux kernel's mlx5 RDMA driver due to unsafe xarray access can cause a kernel warning and potential system instability.
- 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-2025-38372?
CVE-2025-38372 is a high-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:
RDMA/mlx5: Fix unsafe xarray access in implicit ODP handling
__xa_store() and __xa_erase() were used without holding the proper lock, which led to a lockdep warning due to unsafe RCU usage. This patch replaces them with xa_store() and xa_erase(), which perform the necessary locking internally.
============================= WARNING: suspicious RCPU usage 6.14.0-rc7_for_upstream_debug_2025_03_18_15_01 #1 Not tainted ----------------------------- ./include/linux/xarray.h:1211 suspicious rcu_dereference_protected() usage!
other info that might help us debug this:
rcu_scheduler_active = 2, debug_locks = 1 3 locks held by kworker/u136:0/219: at: process_one_work+0xbe4/0x15f0 process_one_work+0x75c/0x15f0 pagefault_mr+0x9a5/0x1390 [mlx5_ib]
stack backtrace: CPU: 14 UID: 0 PID: 219 Comm: kworker/u136:0 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc7_for_upstream_debug_2025_03_18_15_01 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Workqueue: mlx5_ib_page_fault mlx5_ib_eqe_pf_action [mlx5_ib] Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0xa8/0xc0 lockdep_rcu_suspicious+0x1e6/0x260 xas_create+0xb8a/0xee0 xas_store+0x73/0x14c0 __xa_store+0x13c/0x220 ? xa_store_range+0x390/0x390 ? spin_bug+0x1d0/0x1d0 pagefault_mr+0xcb5/0x1390 [mlx5_ib] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x1f/0x30 mlx5_ib_eqe_pf_action+0x3be/0x2620 [mlx5_ib] ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0x400/0x400 ? mlx5_ib_invalidate_range+0xcb0/0xcb0 [mlx5_ib] process_one_work+0x7db/0x15f0 ? pwq_dec_nr_in_flight+0xda0/0xda0 ? assign_work+0x168/0x240 worker_thread+0x57d/0xcd0 ? rescuer_thread+0xc40/0xc40 kthread+0x3b3/0x800 ? kthread_is_per_cpu+0xb0/0xb0 ? lock_downgrade+0x680/0x680 ? do_raw_spin_lock+0x12d/0x270 ? spin_bug+0x1d0/0x1d0 ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0x284/0x9e0 ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0x284/0x400 ? kthread_is_per_cpu+0xb0/0xb0 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 ? kthread_is_per_cpu+0xb0/0xb0 ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38372?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38372?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38372 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38372 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38372, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38372, GHSA-6gw9-2x6r-hqw8, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38372, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38372.