# 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.

- **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:** BELL-CVE-2025-38631, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38631, GHSA-8qg6-39mw-22hg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38631, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38631

## 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: 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

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38631 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38631 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2025-38631/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38631/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38631
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38631
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38631

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38631/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.