# CVE-2025-38311: iavf: get rid of the crit lock CVE-2025-38311 is fixed in 13 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38311, released July 10, 2025. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High. - Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38311 - Priority: High - CVSS: 7.0 (medium) - EPSS: 0.0011 - CISA KEV: not listed - Exploited (vendor report): no - Publicly disclosed: no - Published: Jul 10, 2025 - Vendor advisory: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38311 ## Description 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 ## Where it's fixed | Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released | |---|---|---|---|---| | Linux | dtb-aarch64 opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-64kb opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-64kb sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-default opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-default sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-default-base opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-default-base sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-docs opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-docs sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-kvmsmall opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-kvmsmall sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-obs-build opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-obs-qa opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-obs-qa sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-rt opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-source opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-source sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-syms opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-syms sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump opensuse-leap 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/opensuse-su-2025-20081-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump sles 16.0 | 6.12.0-160000.6.1 | [SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2025-21139-1.md) | Nov 25, 2025 | | Linux | linux Debian 14 | 6.16.3-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38311](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2025-38311.md) | Jul 10, 2025 | --- Data as of 2026-11-09T13:31:49Z UTC. 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