Bug 2418840 (CVE-2025-40231)

Summary: CVE-2025-40231 kernel: vsock: fix lock inversion in vsock_assign_transport()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s vsock (virtual socket) subsystem involving a lock inversion between vsock_register_mutex and the AF_VSOCK sk_lock.Under specific interleavings, vsock_assign_transport() may be called while holding sk_lock, and within that path a call to vsock_linger() may temporarily release and then re-acquire sk_lock. If another thread simultaneously holds vsock_register_mutex and attempts to take sk_lock, a circular dependency can occur leading to a deadlock.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-12-04 16:03:40 UTC
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().