CVE-2025-38040 | serial: mctrl_gpio: split disable_ms into sync and no_sync APIs

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: serial: mctrl_gpio: split disable_ms into sync and no_sync APIs The following splat has been observed on a SAMA5D27 platform using atmel_serial: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/irq/manage.c:738 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 128, non_block: 0, pid: 27, name: kworker/u5:0 preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 INFO: lockdep is turned off. irq event stamp: 0 hardirqs last enabled at (0): [<00000000>] 0x0 hardirqs last disabled at (0): [<c01588f0>] copy_process+0x1c4c/0x7bec softirqs last enabled at (0): [<c0158944>] copy_process+0x1ca0/0x7bec softirqs last disabled at (0): [<00000000>] 0x0 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 27 Comm: kworker/u5:0 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc7+ #74 Hardware name: Atmel SAMA5 Workqueue: hci0 hci_power_on [bluetooth] Call trace: unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x44/0x70 dump_stack_lvl from __might_resched+0x38c/0x598 __might_resched from disable_irq+0x1c/0x48 disable_irq from mctrl_gpio_disable_ms+0x74/0xc0 mctrl_gpio_disable_ms from atmel_disable_ms.part.0+0x80/0x1f4 atmel_disable_ms.part.0 from atmel_set_termios+0x764/0x11e8 atmel_set_termios from uart_change_line_settings+0x15c/0x994 uart_change_line_settings from uart_set_termios+0x2b0/0x668 uart_set_termios from tty_set_termios+0x600/0x8ec tty_set_termios from ttyport_set_flow_control+0x188/0x1e0 ttyport_set_flow_control from wilc_setup+0xd0/0x524 [hci_wilc] wilc_setup [hci_wilc] from hci_dev_open_sync+0x330/0x203c [bluetooth] hci_dev_open_sync [bluetooth] from hci_dev_do_open+0x40/0xb0 [bluetooth] hci_dev_do_open [bluetooth] from hci_power_on+0x12c/0x664 [bluetooth] hci_power_on [bluetooth] from process_one_work+0x998/0x1a38 process_one_work from worker_thread+0x6e0/0xfb4 worker_thread from kthread+0x3d4/0x484 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x28 This warning is emitted when trying to toggle, at the highest level, some flow control (with serdev_device_set_flow_control) in a device driver. At the lowest level, the atmel_serial driver is using serial_mctrl_gpio lib to enable/disable the corresponding IRQs accordingly. The warning emitted by CONFIG_DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP is due to disable_irq (called in mctrl_gpio_disable_ms) being possibly called in some atomic context (some tty drivers perform modem lines configuration in regions protected by port lock). Split mctrl_gpio_disable_ms into two differents APIs, a non-blocking one and a blocking one. Replace mctrl_gpio_disable_ms calls with the relevant version depending on whether the call is protected by some port lock.

Published: 2025-06-18 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38040 is rated Low Risk (23.9/100): 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-2025-38040

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 0.08% 0.16% +0.08%
2 2026-04-14 0.03% 0.08% +0.05%
3 2025-12-19 0.03%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38040

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-2025-38040

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38040

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-38040 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38040
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38040
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38040/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38040 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, ignored 168, released 137, needed 77, not-affected 21, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38040

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38040

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel < 6.1.141 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.93 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.31 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.14.9 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38040

cvelogic Threat Intelligence