CVE-2025-38354 | drm/msm/gpu: Fix crash when throttling GPU immediately during boot

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/msm/gpu: Fix crash when throttling GPU immediately during boot There is a small chance that the GPU is already hot during boot. In that case, the call to of_devfreq_cooling_register() will immediately try to apply devfreq cooling, as seen in the following crash: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 0000000000014110 pc : a6xx_gpu_busy+0x1c/0x58 [msm] lr : msm_devfreq_get_dev_status+0xbc/0x140 [msm] Call trace: a6xx_gpu_busy+0x1c/0x58 [msm] (P) devfreq_simple_ondemand_func+0x3c/0x150 devfreq_update_target+0x44/0xd8 qos_max_notifier_call+0x30/0x84 blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x6c/0xa0 pm_qos_update_target+0xd0/0x110 freq_qos_apply+0x3c/0x74 apply_constraint+0x88/0x148 __dev_pm_qos_update_request+0x7c/0xcc dev_pm_qos_update_request+0x38/0x5c devfreq_cooling_set_cur_state+0x98/0xf0 __thermal_cdev_update+0x64/0xb4 thermal_cdev_update+0x4c/0x58 step_wise_manage+0x1f0/0x318 __thermal_zone_device_update+0x278/0x424 __thermal_cooling_device_register+0x2bc/0x308 thermal_of_cooling_device_register+0x10/0x1c of_devfreq_cooling_register_power+0x240/0x2bc of_devfreq_cooling_register+0x14/0x20 msm_devfreq_init+0xc4/0x1a0 [msm] msm_gpu_init+0x304/0x574 [msm] adreno_gpu_init+0x1c4/0x2e0 [msm] a6xx_gpu_init+0x5c8/0x9c8 [msm] adreno_bind+0x2a8/0x33c [msm] ... At this point we haven't initialized the GMU at all yet, so we cannot read the GMU registers inside a6xx_gpu_busy(). A similar issue was fixed before in commit 6694482a70e9 ("drm/msm: Avoid unclocked GMU register access in 6xx gpu_busy"): msm_devfreq_init() does call devfreq_suspend_device(), but unlike msm_devfreq_suspend(), it doesn't set the df->suspended flag accordingly. This means the df->suspended flag does not match the actual devfreq state after initialization and msm_devfreq_get_dev_status() will end up accessing GMU registers, causing the crash. Fix this by setting df->suspended correctly during initialization. Patchwork: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/650772/

Published: 2025-07-25 Last update: 2025-12-16 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-38354 is rated Low Risk (29.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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-2025-38354

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 2026-05-21 0.02% 0.07% +0.05%
2 2025-07-26 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38354

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-2025-38354

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38354

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-38354 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-2025-38354
redhat — — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38354
suse medium CVE-2025-38354 severity moderate: SUSE including 476 source package names (2.1.3-6.67:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-32.1.21.10, 2.1.3-7.44:kernel-default-6.4.0-32.1, …), 1073 product×package rows across 210 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (210 product lines)): Fixed 627, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 194, First Fixed 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38354/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38354 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1414 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1017, ignored 155, released 138, not-affected 99, needed 2, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38354

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38354

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.18.18, < 5.19 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.19.2, < 6.1.143 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.96 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.36 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.5 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38354

cvelogic Threat Intelligence