# CVE-2025-38623: PCI: pnv_php: Fix surprise plug detection and recovery

> A flaw in the Linux kernel's PowerNV PCI hotplug driver causes system hangs and requires reboots after surprise device removals, impacting availability.

- **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:** 22 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-66629, BELL-CVE-2025-38623, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38623, GHSA-jm3q-7w4m-jc2w, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38623, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38623, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38623, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38623, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38623, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38623

## What is CVE-2025-38623?

CVE-2025-38623 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 22 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:

PCI: pnv_php: Fix surprise plug detection and recovery

The existing PowerNV hotplug code did not handle surprise plug events
correctly, leading to a complete failure of the hotplug system after device
removal and a required reboot to detect new devices.

This comes down to two issues:

 1) When a device is surprise removed, often the bridge upstream
    port will cause a PE freeze on the PHB.  If this freeze is not
    cleared, the MSI interrupts from the bridge hotplug notification
    logic will not be received by the kernel, stalling all plug events
    on all slots associated with the PE.

 2) When a device is removed from a slot, regardless of surprise or
    programmatic removal, the associated PHB/PE ls left frozen.
    If this freeze is not cleared via a fundamental reset, skiboot
    is unable to clear the freeze and cannot retrain / rescan the
    slot.  This also requires a reboot to clear the freeze and redetect
    the device in the slot.

Issue the appropriate unfreeze and rescan commands on hotplug events,
and don't oops on hotplug if pci_bus_to_OF_node() returns NULL.

[bhelgaas: tidy comments]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38623?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38623?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38623 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38623 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
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- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38623 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38623 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 22 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-2025-38623 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-2025-38623/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38623/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38623
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38623
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38623

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38623/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.