Bug 2379182 (CVE-2025-38305) - CVE-2025-38305 kernel: ptp: remove ptp->n_vclocks check logic in ptp_vclock_in_use()
Summary: CVE-2025-38305 kernel: ptp: remove ptp->n_vclocks check logic in ptp_vclock_i...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2025-38305
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-07-10 08:02 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2025-07-11 11:39 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-07-10 08:02:05 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ptp: remove ptp->n_vclocks check logic in ptp_vclock_in_use()

There is no disagreement that we should check both ptp->is_virtual_clock
and ptp->n_vclocks to check if the ptp virtual clock is in use.

However, when we acquire ptp->n_vclocks_mux to read ptp->n_vclocks in
ptp_vclock_in_use(), we observe a recursive lock in the call trace
starting from n_vclocks_store().

============================================
WARNING: possible recursive locking detected
6.15.0-rc6 #1 Not tainted
--------------------------------------------
syz.0.1540/13807 is trying to acquire lock:
ffff888035a24868 (&ptp->n_vclocks_mux){+.+.}-{4:4}, at:
 ptp_vclock_in_use drivers/ptp/ptp_private.h:103 [inline]
ffff888035a24868 (&ptp->n_vclocks_mux){+.+.}-{4:4}, at:
 ptp_clock_unregister+0x21/0x250 drivers/ptp/ptp_clock.c:415

but task is already holding lock:
ffff888030704868 (&ptp->n_vclocks_mux){+.+.}-{4:4}, at:
 n_vclocks_store+0xf1/0x6d0 drivers/ptp/ptp_sysfs.c:215

other info that might help us debug this:
 Possible unsafe locking scenario:

       CPU0
       ----
  lock(&ptp->n_vclocks_mux);
  lock(&ptp->n_vclocks_mux);

 *** DEADLOCK ***
....
============================================

The best way to solve this is to remove the logic that checks
ptp->n_vclocks in ptp_vclock_in_use().

The reason why this is appropriate is that any path that uses
ptp->n_vclocks must unconditionally check if ptp->n_vclocks is greater
than 0 before unregistering vclocks, and all functions are already
written this way. And in the function that uses ptp->n_vclocks, we
already get ptp->n_vclocks_mux before unregistering vclocks.

Therefore, we need to remove the redundant check for ptp->n_vclocks in
ptp_vclock_in_use() to prevent recursive locking.

Comment 1 Avinash Hanwate 2025-07-11 11:30:19 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025071014-CVE-2025-38305-4ad3@gregkh/T


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