CVE-2025-38388: linux kernel vulnerability

CVE-2025-38388: medium vulnerability affecting linux kernel. Check CVSS, KEV status, business impact and recommended administrator actions.
CVE-2025-38388CVSS 5.5Linux

CVE-2025-38388: linux kernel vulnerability

CVE-2025-38388: medium vulnerability affecting linux kernel. Check CVSS, KEV status, business impact and recommended administrator actions.

CVSS
5.5 MEDIUM
EPSS
1.91%
Known exploited
not in KEV
Product
linux kernel

What is known

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: firmware: arm_ffa: Replace mutex with rwlock to avoid sleep in atomic context The current use of a mutex to protect the notifier hashtable accesses can lead to issues in the atomic context. It results in the below kernel warnings: | BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:258 | in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 1, non_block: 0, pid: 9, name: kworker/0:0 | preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 | RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 | CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 9 Comm: kworker/0:0 Not tainted 6.14.0 #4 | Workqueue: ffa_pcpu_irq_notification notif_pcpu_irq_work_fn | Call trace: | show_stack+0x18/0x24 (C) | dump_stack_lvl+0x78/0x90 | dump_stack+0x18/0x24 | __might_resched+0x114/0x170 | __might_sleep+0x48/0x98 | mutex_lock+0x24/0x80 | handle_notif_callbacks+0x54/0xe0 | notif_get_and_handle+0x40/0x88 | generic_exec_single+0x80/0xc0 | smp_call_function_single+0xfc/0x1a0 | notif_pcpu_irq_work_fn+0x2c/0x38 | process_one_work+0x14c/0x2b4 | worker_thread+0x2e4/0x3e0 | kthread+0x13c/0x210 | ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 To address this, replace the mutex with an rwlock to protect the notifier hashtable accesses. This ensures that read-side locking does not sleep and multiple readers can acquire the lock concurrently, avoiding unnecessary contention and potential deadlocks. Writer access remains exclusive, preserving correctness. This change resolves warnings from lockdep about potential sleep in atomic context.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-38388, a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.5) affecting linux kernel, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether linux kernel is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

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