Bug 2390357 (CVE-2025-38632) - CVE-2025-38632 kernel: pinmux: fix race causing mux_owner NULL with active mux_usecount
Summary: CVE-2025-38632 kernel: pinmux: fix race causing mux_owner NULL with active mu...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2025-38632
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: 2025-08-22 17:02 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2025-08-25 09:09 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-08-22 17:02:23 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

pinmux: fix race causing mux_owner NULL with active mux_usecount

commit 5a3e85c3c397 ("pinmux: Use sequential access to access
desc->pinmux data") tried to address the issue when two client of the
same gpio calls pinctrl_select_state() for the same functionality, was
resulting in NULL pointer issue while accessing desc->mux_owner.
However, issue was not completely fixed due to the way it was handled
and it can still result in the same NULL pointer.

The issue occurs due to the following interleaving:

     cpu0 (process A)                   cpu1 (process B)

      pin_request() {                   pin_free() {

                                         mutex_lock()
                                         desc->mux_usecount--; //becomes 0
                                         ..
                                         mutex_unlock()

  mutex_lock(desc->mux)
  desc->mux_usecount++; // becomes 1
  desc->mux_owner = owner;
  mutex_unlock(desc->mux)

                                         mutex_lock(desc->mux)
                                         desc->mux_owner = NULL;
                                         mutex_unlock(desc->mux)

This sequence leads to a state where the pin appears to be in use
(`mux_usecount == 1`) but has no owner (`mux_owner == NULL`), which can
cause NULL pointer on next pin_request on the same pin.

Ensure that updates to mux_usecount and mux_owner are performed
atomically under the same lock. Only clear mux_owner when mux_usecount
reaches zero and no new owner has been assigned.


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