# CVE-2025-68244: drm/i915: Avoid lock inversion when pinning to GGTT on CHV/BXT+VTD

> A lock inversion in the i915 driver on specific Intel hardware can cause a kernel deadlock, leading to system denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68244, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68244, GHSA-gm59-gv97-mpp4, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68244, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68244, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68244, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68244, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68244

## What is CVE-2025-68244?

CVE-2025-68244 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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:

drm/i915: Avoid lock inversion when pinning to GGTT on CHV/BXT+VTD

On completion of i915_vma_pin_ww(), a synchronous variant of
dma_fence_work_commit() is called.  When pinning a VMA to GGTT address
space on a Cherry View family processor, or on a Broxton generation SoC
with VTD enabled, i.e., when stop_machine() is then called from
intel_ggtt_bind_vma(), that can potentially lead to lock inversion among
reservation_ww and cpu_hotplug locks.

[86.861179] ======================================================
[86.861193] WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
[86.861209] 6.15.0-rc5-CI_DRM_16515-gca0305cadc2d+ #1 Tainted: G     U
[86.861226] ------------------------------------------------------
[86.861238] i915_module_loa/1432 is trying to acquire lock:
[86.861252] ffffffff83489090 (cpu_hotplug_lock){++++}-{0:0}, at: stop_machine+0x1c/0x50
[86.861290]
but task is already holding lock:
[86.861303] ffffc90002e0b4c8 (reservation_ww_class_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: i915_vma_pin.constprop.0+0x39/0x1d0 [i915]
[86.862233]
which lock already depends on the new lock.
[86.862251]
the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:
[86.862265]
-> #5 (reservation_ww_class_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}:
[86.862292]        dma_resv_lockdep+0x19a/0x390
[86.862315]        do_one_initcall+0x60/0x3f0
[86.862334]        kernel_init_freeable+0x3cd/0x680
[86.862353]        kernel_init+0x1b/0x200
[86.862369]        ret_from_fork+0x47/0x70
[86.862383]        ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
[86.862399]
-> #4 (reservation_ww_class_acquire){+.+.}-{0:0}:
[86.862425]        dma_resv_lockdep+0x178/0x390
[86.862440]        do_one_initcall+0x60/0x3f0
[86.862454]        kernel_init_freeable+0x3cd/0x680
[86.862470]        kernel_init+0x1b/0x200
[86.862482]        ret_from_fork+0x47/0x70
[86.862495]        ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
[86.862509]
-> #3 (&mm->mmap_lock){++++}-{3:3}:
[86.862531]        down_read_killable+0x46/0x1e0
[86.862546]        lock_mm_and_find_vma+0xa2/0x280
[86.862561]        do_user_addr_fault+0x266/0x8e0
[86.862578]        exc_page_fault+0x8a/0x2f0
[86.862593]        asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30
[86.862607]        filldir64+0xeb/0x180
[86.862620]        kernfs_fop_readdir+0x118/0x480
[86.862635]        iterate_dir+0xcf/0x2b0
[86.862648]        __x64_sys_getdents64+0x84/0x140
[86.862661]        x64_sys_call+0x1058/0x2660
[86.862675]        do_syscall_64+0x91/0xe90
[86.862689]        entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
[86.862703]
-> #2 (&root->kernfs_rwsem){++++}-{3:3}:
[86.862725]        down_write+0x3e/0xf0
[86.862738]        kernfs_add_one+0x30/0x3c0
[86.862751]        kernfs_create_dir_ns+0x53/0xb0
[86.862765]        internal_create_group+0x134/0x4c0
[86.862779]        sysfs_create_group+0x13/0x20
[86.862792]        topology_add_dev+0x1d/0x30
[86.862806]        cpuhp_invoke_callback+0x4b5/0x850
[86.862822]        cpuhp_issue_call+0xbf/0x1f0
[86.862836]        __cpuhp_setup_state_cpuslocked+0x111/0x320
[86.862852]        __cpuhp_setup_state+0xb0/0x220
[86.862866]        topology_sysfs_init+0x30/0x50
[86.862879]        do_one_initcall+0x60/0x3f0
[86.862893]        kernel_init_freeable+0x3cd/0x680
[86.862908]        kernel_init+0x1b/0x200
[86.862921]        ret_from_fork+0x47/0x70
[86.862934]        ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
[86.862947]
-> #1 (cpuhp_state_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}:
[86.862969]        __mutex_lock+0xaa/0xed0
[86.862982]        mutex_lock_nested+0x1b/0x30
[86.862995]        __cpuhp_setup_state_cpuslocked+0x67/0x320
[86.863012]        __cpuhp_setup_state+0xb0/0x220
[86.863026]        page_alloc_init_cpuhp+0x2d/0x60
[86.863041]        mm_core_init+0x22/0x2d0
[86.863054]        start_kernel+0x576/0xbd0
[86.863068]        x86_64_start_reservations+0x18/0x30
[86.863084]        x86_64_start_kernel+0xbf/0x110
[86.863098]        common_startup_64+0x13e/0x141
[86.863114]
-> #0 (cpu_hotplug_lock){++++}-{0:0}:
[86.863135]        __lock_acquire+0x16
---truncated---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68244?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68244?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68244 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68244 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68244 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68244 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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-2025-68244 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: 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-2025-68244/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68244/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68244
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68244
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68244

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68244/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.