CVE-2025-38687

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel - Use-After-Free via comedi Device Detachment Race Condition

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: comedi: fix race between polling and detaching syzbot reports a use-after-free in comedi in the below link, which is due to comedi gladly removing the allocated async area even though poll requests are still active on the wait_queue_head inside of it. This can cause a use-after-free when the poll entries are later triggered or removed, as the memory for the wait_queue_head has been freed. We need to check there are no tasks queued on any of the subdevices' wait queues before allowing the device to be detached by the `COMEDI_DEVCONFIG` ioctl. Tasks will read-lock `dev->attach_lock` before adding themselves to the subdevice wait queue, so fix the problem in the `COMEDI_DEVCONFIG` ioctl handler by write-locking `dev->attach_lock` before checking that all of the subdevices are safe to be deleted. This includes testing for any sleepers on the subdevices' wait queues. It remains locked until the device has been detached. This requires the `comedi_device_detach()` function to be refactored slightly, moving the bulk of it into new function `comedi_device_detach_locked()`. Note that the refactor of `comedi_device_detach()` results in `comedi_device_cancel_all()` now being called while `dev->attach_lock` is write-locked, which wasn't the case previously, but that does not matter. Thanks to Jens Axboe for diagnosing the problem and co-developing this patch.

Scores

CVSS v3 4.7
EPSS 0.0003
EPSS Percentile 7.7%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-362
Status published
Products (30)
debian/debian_linux 11.0
linux/Kernel 3.14.0 - 5.4.297linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.190linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.1.149linux
linux/Kernel 5.5.0 - 5.10.241linux
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.15.11linux
linux/Kernel 6.16.0 - 6.16.2linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.6.103linux
linux/Kernel 6.7.0 - 6.12.43linux
Linux/Linux < 3.14
... and 20 more
Published Sep 04, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026