# CVE-2025-39790: bus: mhi: host: Detect events pointing to unexpected TREs

> A race condition in the Linux kernel MHI host driver allows double-freeing buffers, potentially leading to code execution or system crashes.

- **Severity:** High 8.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-39790, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39790, GHSA-q63v-r8x9-2c5r, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-39790, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-39790, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-39790, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-39790, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-39790, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39790

## What is CVE-2025-39790?

CVE-2025-39790 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 11 Sep 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:

bus: mhi: host: Detect events pointing to unexpected TREs

When a remote device sends a completion event to the host, it contains a
pointer to the consumed TRE. The host uses this pointer to process all of
the TREs between it and the host's local copy of the ring's read pointer.
This works when processing completion for chained transactions, but can
lead to nasty results if the device sends an event for a single-element
transaction with a read pointer that is multiple elements ahead of the
host's read pointer.

For instance, if the host accesses an event ring while the device is
updating it, the pointer inside of the event might still point to an old
TRE. If the host uses the channel's xfer_cb() to directly free the buffer
pointed to by the TRE, the buffer will be double-freed.

This behavior was observed on an ep that used upstream EP stack without
'commit 6f18d174b73d ("bus: mhi: ep: Update read pointer only after buffer
is written")'. Where the device updated the events ring pointer before
updating the event contents, so it left a window where the host was able to
access the stale data the event pointed to, before the device had the
chance to update them. The usual pattern was that the host received an
event pointing to a TRE that is not immediately after the last processed
one, so it got treated as if it was a chained transaction, processing all
of the TREs in between the two read pointers.

This commit aims to harden the host by ensuring transactions where the
event points to a TRE that isn't local_rp + 1 are chained.

[mani: added stable tag and reworded commit message]

Weakness: CWE-415 (Double Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39790?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-39790?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-39790 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39790 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)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [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-2025-39790 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-39790 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 11 Sep 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-2025-39790 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-2025-39790/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39790/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39790
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39790
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39790

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39790/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
