# CVE-2025-38583: clk: xilinx: vcu: unregister pll_post only if registered correctly

> A null pointer dereference in the Xilinx VCU clock driver causes a kernel crash when clock registration fails, leading to denial of service.

- **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:** 19 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-66530, AZL-73875, BELL-CVE-2025-38583, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38583, GHSA-p83v-m67p-pffw, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38583, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38583, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38583, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38583, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38583

## What is CVE-2025-38583?

CVE-2025-38583 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 19 Aug 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:

clk: xilinx: vcu: unregister pll_post only if registered correctly

If registration of pll_post is failed, it will be set to NULL or ERR,
unregistering same will fail with following call trace:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 008
pc : clk_hw_unregister+0xc/0x20
lr : clk_hw_unregister_fixed_factor+0x18/0x30
sp : ffff800011923850
...
Call trace:
 clk_hw_unregister+0xc/0x20
 clk_hw_unregister_fixed_factor+0x18/0x30
 xvcu_unregister_clock_provider+0xcc/0xf4 [xlnx_vcu]
 xvcu_probe+0x2bc/0x53c [xlnx_vcu]

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38583?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38583?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38583 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38583 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38583 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38583 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 19 Aug 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-2025-38583 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-2025-38583/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38583/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38583
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38583
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38583

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38583/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.