CVE-2025-37905 | firmware: arm_scmi: Balance device refcount when destroying devices

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: firmware: arm_scmi: Balance device refcount when destroying devices Using device_find_child() to lookup the proper SCMI device to destroy causes an unbalance in device refcount, since device_find_child() calls an implicit get_device(): this, in turns, inhibits the call of the provided release methods upon devices destruction. As a consequence, one of the structures that is not freed properly upon destruction is the internal struct device_private dev->p populated by the drivers subsystem core. KMemleak detects this situation since loading/unloding some SCMI driver causes related devices to be created/destroyed without calling any device_release method. unreferenced object 0xffff00000f583800 (size 512): comm "insmod", pid 227, jiffies 4294912190 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 ad 4e ad de ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 .....N.......... ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 60 36 1d 8a 00 80 ff ff ........`6...... backtrace (crc 114e2eed): kmemleak_alloc+0xbc/0xd8 __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x2dc/0x398 device_add+0x954/0x12d0 device_register+0x28/0x40 __scmi_device_create.part.0+0x1bc/0x380 scmi_device_create+0x2d0/0x390 scmi_create_protocol_devices+0x74/0xf8 scmi_device_request_notifier+0x1f8/0x2a8 notifier_call_chain+0x110/0x3b0 blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x70/0xb0 scmi_driver_register+0x350/0x7f0 0xffff80000a3b3038 do_one_initcall+0x12c/0x730 do_init_module+0x1dc/0x640 load_module+0x4b20/0x5b70 init_module_from_file+0xec/0x158 $ ./scripts/faddr2line ./vmlinux device_add+0x954/0x12d0 device_add+0x954/0x12d0: kmalloc_noprof at include/linux/slab.h:901 (inlined by) kzalloc_noprof at include/linux/slab.h:1037 (inlined by) device_private_init at drivers/base/core.c:3510 (inlined by) device_add at drivers/base/core.c:3561 Balance device refcount by issuing a put_device() on devices found via device_find_child().

Published: 2025-05-20 Last update: 2025-11-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-37905 is rated Low Risk (24/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.16%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-37905

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.09% 0.16% +0.07%
2 2026-03-16 0.02% 0.09% +0.07%
3 2025-11-18 0.02%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-37905

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-37905

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-37905

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-37905 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 6. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-37905
redhat https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37905
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37905/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-37905 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, released 168, ignored 164, not-affected 68, needed 3, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-37905

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-37905

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.13, < 5.15.182 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.138 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.90 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.28 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.14.6 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-37905

cvelogic Threat Intelligence