CVE-2025-40231 | vsock: fix lock inversion in vsock_assign_transport()

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vsock: fix lock inversion in vsock_assign_transport() Syzbot reported a potential lock inversion deadlock between vsock_register_mutex and sk_lock-AF_VSOCK when vsock_linger() is called. The issue was introduced by commit 687aa0c5581b ("vsock: Fix transport_* TOCTOU") which added vsock_register_mutex locking in vsock_assign_transport() around the transport->release() call, that can call vsock_linger(). vsock_assign_transport() can be called with sk_lock held. vsock_linger() calls sk_wait_event() that temporarily releases and re-acquires sk_lock. During this window, if another thread hold vsock_register_mutex while trying to acquire sk_lock, a circular dependency is created. Fix this by releasing vsock_register_mutex before calling transport->release() and vsock_deassign_transport(). This is safe because we don't need to hold vsock_register_mutex while releasing the old transport, and we ensure the new transport won't disappear by obtaining a module reference first via try_module_get().

Published: 2025-12-04 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-40231 is rated Low Risk (18.1/100): low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2025-40231

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 2026-05-14 0.04% 0.06% +0.01%
2 2026-05-02 0.06% 0.04% -0.01%
3 2025-12-18 0.06%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-40231

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

No CVSS data in dataset for this CVE.

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-40231

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-40231

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-40231 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-40231
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-40231
suse medium CVE-2025-40231 severity moderate: SUSE including 411 source package names (13.2-9.1:libsystemd0-254.23-1.1, 13.2-9.1:libudev1-254.23-1.1, …), 918 product×package rows across 149 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, … (149 product lines)): Fixed 431, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 231, First Fixed 25. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-40231/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-40231 medium priority: Ubuntu including 157 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1405 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1010, ignored 178, released 155, not-affected 53, needed 6, pending 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-40231

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-40231

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-40231

cvelogic Threat Intelligence