CVE-2025-38496

  • Published: 2025-07-28T12:15:31.847

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

dm-bufio: fix sched in atomic context

If “try_verify_in_tasklet” is set for dm-verity, DM_BUFIO_CLIENT_NO_SLEEP
is enabled for dm-bufio. However, when bufio tries to evict buffers, there
is a chance to trigger scheduling in spin_lock_bh, the following warning
is hit:

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at drivers/md/dm-bufio.c:2745
in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 123, name: kworker/2:2
preempt_count: 201, expected: 0
RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0
4 locks held by kworker/2:2/123:
#0: ffff88800a2d1548 ((wq_completion)dm_bufio_cache){….}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0xe46/0x1970
#1: ffffc90000d97d20 ((work_completion)(&dm_bufio_replacement_work)){….}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x763/0x1970
#2: ffffffff8555b528 (dm_bufio_clients_lock){….}-{3:3}, at: do_global_cleanup+0x1ce/0x710
#3: ffff88801d5820b8 (&c->spinlock){….}-{2:2}, at: do_global_cleanup+0x2a5/0x710
Preemption disabled at:
[] 0x0
CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 123 Comm: kworker/2:2 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3-g90548c634bd0 #305 PREEMPT(voluntary)
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
Workqueue: dm_bufio_cache do_global_cleanup
Call Trace:

dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70
__might_resched+0x360/0x4e0
do_global_cleanup+0x2f5/0x710
process_one_work+0x7db/0x1970
worker_thread+0x518/0xea0
kthread+0x359/0x690
ret_from_fork+0xf3/0x1b0
ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

That can be reproduced by:

veritysetup format –data-block-size=4096 –hash-block-size=4096 /dev/vda /dev/vdb
SIZE=$(blockdev –getsz /dev/vda)
dmsetup create myverity -r –table “0 $SIZE verity 1 /dev/vda /dev/vdb 4096 4096 1 sha256 1 try_verify_in_tasklet”
mount /dev/dm-0 /mnt -o ro
echo 102400 > /sys/module/dm_bufio/parameters/max_cache_size_bytes
[read files in /mnt]

Related CVE by CWE

No related CWE found.

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How to fix CVE-2025-38496

CVE-2025-38496 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm-bufio: fix sched in atomic context If “try_verify_in_tasklet” is set for dm-verity, DM_BUFIO_CLIENT_NO_SLEEP is enabled for dm-bufio. However, when bufio tries to evict buffers, there is a chance to trigger scheduling in spin_lock_bh, the following warning is hit: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context […]

Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public

How to Fix:

1 Identify affected systems

- Check if you're running the affected product

2 Immediate actions

- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access

3 Verification

- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)

4 Long-term prevention

- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations

Exploit Difficulty Assessment

HARD
⏱️ Time to Exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Skills Required: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public Exploits: Rare or not public

Vulnerability Timeline

Jul 28, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Nov 12, 2025
Imported to Database

Added to this CVE tracking system

Detection Rules & IOCs

No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.

No vendor/product data available.

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