# CVE-2025-71180: counter: interrupt-cnt: Drop IRQF_NO_THREAD flag

> A race condition in the Linux kernel counter driver causes invalid wait context warnings and potential system instability due to improper IRQ threading flags.

- **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:** 31 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-71180, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71180, GHSA-h9pq-jcwj-v49p, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-71180, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-71180, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-71180, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71180, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71180

## What is CVE-2025-71180?

CVE-2025-71180 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 31 Jan 2026. 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:

counter: interrupt-cnt: Drop IRQF_NO_THREAD flag

An IRQ handler can either be IRQF_NO_THREAD or acquire spinlock_t, as
CONFIG_PROVE_RAW_LOCK_NESTING warns:
=============================
[ BUG: Invalid wait context ]
6.18.0-rc1+git... #1
-----------------------------
some-user-space-process/1251 is trying to lock:
(&counter->events_list_lock){....}-{3:3}, at: counter_push_event [counter]
other info that might help us debug this:
context-{2:2}
no locks held by some-user-space-process/....
stack backtrace:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1251 Comm: some-user-space-process 6.18.0-rc1+git... #1 PREEMPT
Call trace:
 show_stack (C)
 dump_stack_lvl
 dump_stack
 __lock_acquire
 lock_acquire
 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
 counter_push_event [counter]
 interrupt_cnt_isr [interrupt_cnt]
 __handle_irq_event_percpu
 handle_irq_event
 handle_simple_irq
 handle_irq_desc
 generic_handle_domain_irq
 gpio_irq_handler
 handle_irq_desc
 generic_handle_domain_irq
 gic_handle_irq
 call_on_irq_stack
 do_interrupt_handler
 el0_interrupt
 __el0_irq_handler_common
 el0t_64_irq_handler
 el0t_64_irq

... and Sebastian correctly points out. Remove IRQF_NO_THREAD as an
alternative to switching to raw_spinlock_t, because the latter would limit
all potential nested locks to raw_spinlock_t only.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71180?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-71180?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-71180 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71180 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-2025-71180 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-71180 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 31 Jan 2026. 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-2025-71180 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-2025-71180/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71180/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71180
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71180
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-71180

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71180/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.