CVE-2025-38631 clk: imx95-blk-ctl: Fix synchronous abort
A null pointer dereference in the i.MX95 clock driver causes a kernel crash when runtime PM is enabled, leading to denial of service.
- 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-2025-38631?
CVE-2025-38631 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, 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:
clk: imx95-blk-ctl: Fix synchronous abort
When enabling runtime PM for clock suppliers that also belong to a power domain, the following crash is thrown: error: synchronous external abort: 0000000096000010 [#1] PREEMPT SMP Workqueue: events_unbound deferred_probe_work_func pstate: 60400009 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : clk_mux_get_parent+0x60/0x90 lr : clk_core_reparent_orphans_nolock+0x58/0xd8 Call trace: clk_mux_get_parent+0x60/0x90 clk_core_reparent_orphans_nolock+0x58/0xd8 of_clk_add_hw_provider.part.0+0x90/0x100 of_clk_add_hw_provider+0x1c/0x38 imx95_bc_probe+0x2e0/0x3f0 platform_probe+0x70/0xd8
Enabling runtime PM without explicitly resuming the device caused the power domain cut off after clk_register() is called. As a result, a crash happens when the clock hardware provider is added and attempts to access the BLK_CTL register.
Fix this by using devm_pm_runtime_enable() instead of pm_runtime_enable() and getting rid of the pm_runtime_disable() in the cleanup path.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38631?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38631?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38631 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38631 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38631, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38631, GHSA-8qg6-39mw-22hg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38631, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38631.