In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iavf: get rid of the crit lock Get rid of the crit lock. That frees us from the error prone logic of try_locks. Thanks to netdev_lock() by Jakub it is now easy, and in most cases we were protected by it already - replace crit lock by netdev lock when it was not the case. Lockdep reports that we should cancel the work under crit_lock [splat1], and that was the scheme we have mostly followed since [1] by Slawomir. But when that is done we still got into deadlocks [splat2]. So instead we should look at the bigger problem, namely "weird locking/scheduling" of the iavf. The first step to fix that is to remove the crit lock. I will followup with a -next series that simplifies scheduling/tasks. Cancel the work without netdev lock (weird unlock+lock scheme), to fix the [splat2] (which would be totally ugly if we would kept the crit lock). Extend protected part of iavf_watchdog_task() to include scheduling more work. Note that the removed comment in iavf_reset_task() was misplaced, it belonged to inside of the removed if condition, so it's gone now. [splat1] - w/o this patch - The deadlock during VF removal: WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected sh/3825 is trying to acquire lock: ((work_completion)(&(&adapter->watchdog_task)->work)){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: start_flush_work+0x1a1/0x470 but task is already holding lock: (&adapter->crit_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: iavf_remove+0xd1/0x690 [iavf] which lock already depends on the new lock. [splat2] - when cancelling work under crit lock, w/o this series, see [2] for the band aid attempt WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected sh/3550 is trying to acquire lock: ((wq_completion)iavf){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: touch_wq_lockdep_map+0x26/0x90 but task is already holding lock: (&dev->lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: iavf_remove+0xa6/0x6e0 [iavf] which lock already depends on the new lock. [1] fc2e6b3b132a ("iavf: Rework mutexes for better synchronisation") [2] https://github.com/pkitszel/linux/commit/52dddbfc2bb60294083f5711a158a
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38311 is rated Low Risk (29.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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.
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 | 2026-05-06 | 0.02% | 0.07% | +0.05% |
| 2 | 2025-07-10 | — | 0.02% | — |
Full EPSS history (2 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
unimportant | CVE-2025-38311 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38311 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38311 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2025-38311 severity moderate: SUSE including 94 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-64kb-6.12.0-160000.6.1, cluster-md-kmp-default, …), 514 product×package rows across 91 product lines (Image SLES-Azure-3P, Image SLES-Azure-Basic, … (91 product lines)): Known Not Affected 316, Fixed 177, First Fixed 21. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38311/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-38311 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1548 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1142, ignored 164, released 107, not-affected 100, needed 33, needs-triage 2. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38311 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.1.42, < 6.2 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.4.7, < 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.5.1, < 6.15.3 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:-:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.5:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:* |