CVE-2025-38436 drm/scheduler: signal scheduled fence when kill job
A flaw in the Linux kernel DRM scheduler allows a local attacker to cause a denial of service by hanging dependent applications through improper fence signaling during job termination.
- 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-2025-38436?
CVE-2025-38436 is a medium-severity denial of service 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/scheduler: signal scheduled fence when kill job
When an entity from application B is killed, drm_sched_entity_kill() removes all jobs belonging to that entity through drm_sched_entity_kill_jobs_work(). If application A's job depends on a scheduled fence from application B's job, and that fence is not properly signaled during the killing process, application A's dependency cannot be cleared.
This leads to application A hanging indefinitely while waiting for a dependency that will never be resolved. Fix this issue by ensuring that scheduled fences are properly signaled when an entity is killed, allowing dependent applications to continue execution.
Weakness: CWE-667
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38436?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38436?
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-2025-38436 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38436 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-70504, BELL-CVE-2025-38436, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38436, GHSA-637r-5w8j-mjg6, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38436, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38436 and 3 more.