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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

CVE-2025-38389: drm/i915/gt: Fix timeline left held on VMA alloc error

HighCVSS 7.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 31/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.21% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 40e09506aea1fde1f3e0e04eca531bbb23404baf, 4c778c96e469fb719b11683e0a3be8ea68052fa2, 5a7ae7bebdc4c2ecd48a2c061319956f65c09473; azl3 kernel 6.6.96.2-2 on Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.104.2-1; cbl2 kernel 5.15.186.1-1 on CBL Mariner 2.0 5.15.200.1-1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 40e09506aea1fde1f3e0e04eca531bbb23404baf, 4c778c96e469fb719b11683e0a3be8ea68052fa2, 5a7ae7bebdc4c2ecd48a2c061319956f65c09473; azl3 kernel 6.6.96.2-2 on Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.104.2-1; cbl2 kernel 5.15.186.1-1 on CBL Mariner 2.0 5.15.200.1-1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915/gt: Fix timeline left held on VMA alloc error The following error has been reported sporadically by CI when a test unbinds the i915 driver on a ring submission platform: <4> [239.330153] ------------[ cut here ]------------ <4> [239.330166] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] drm_WARN_ON(dev_priv->mm.shrink_count) <4> [239.330196] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 18570 at drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_gem.c:1309 i915_gem_cleanup_early+0x13e/0x150 [i915] ... <4> [239.330640] RIP: 0010:i915_gem_cleanup_early+0x13e/0x150 [i915] ... <4> [239.330942] Call Trace: <4> [239.330944] <TASK> <4> [239.330949] i915_driver_late_release+0x2b/0xa0 [i915] <4> [239.331202] i915_driver_release+0x86/0xa0 [i915] <4> [239.331482] devm_drm_dev_init_release+0x61/0x90 <4> [239.331494] devm_action_release+0x15/0x30 <4> [239.331504] release_nodes+0x3d/0x120 <4> [239.331517] devres_release_all+0x96/0xd0 <4> [239.331533] device_unbind_cleanup+0x12/0x80 <4> [239.331543] device_release_driver_internal+0x23a/0x280 <4> [239.331550] ? bus_find_device+0xa5/0xe0 <4> [239.331563] device_driver_detach+0x14/0x20 ... <4> [357.719679] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- If the test also unloads the i915 module then that's followed with: <3> [357.787478] ============================================================================= <3> [357.788006] BUG i915_vma (Tainted: G U W N ): Objects remaining on __kmem_cache_shutdown() <3> [357.788031] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- <3> [357.788204] Object 0xffff888109e7f480 @offset=29824 <3> [357.788670] Allocated in i915_vma_instance+0xee/0xc10 [i915] age=292729 cpu=4 pid=2244 <4> [357.788994] i915_vma_instance+0xee/0xc10 [i915] <4> [357.789290] init_status_page+0x7b/0x420 [i915] <4> [357.789532] intel_engines_init+0x1d8/0x980 [i915] <4> [357.789772] intel_gt_init+0x175/0x450 [i915] <4> [357.790014] i915_gem_init+0x113/0x340 [i915] <4> [357.790281] i915_driver_probe+0x847/0xed0 [i915] <4> [357.790504] i915_pci_probe+0xe6/0x220 [i915] ... Closer analysis of CI results history has revealed a dependency of the error on a few IGT tests, namely: - igt@api_intel_allocator@fork-simple-stress-signal, - igt@api_intel_allocator@two-level-inception-interruptible, - igt@gem_linear_blits@interruptible, - igt@prime_mmap_coherency@ioctl-errors, which invisibly trigger the issue, then exhibited with first driver unbind attempt. All of the above tests perform actions which are actively interrupted with signals. Further debugging has allowed to narrow that scope down to DRM_IOCTL_I915_GEM_EXECBUFFER2, and ring_context_alloc(), specific to ring submission, in particular. If successful then that function, or its execlists or GuC submission equivalent, is supposed to be called only once per GEM context engine, followed by raise of a flag that prevents the function from being called again. The function is expected to unwind its internal errors itself, so it may be safely called once more after it returns an error. In case of ring submission, the function first gets a reference to the engine's legacy timeline and then allocates a VMA. If the VMA allocation fails, e.g. when i915_vma_instance() called from inside is interrupted with a signal, then ring_context_alloc() fails, leaving the timeline held referenced. On next I915_GEM_EXECBUFFER2 IOCTL, another reference to the timeline is got, and only that last one is put on successful completion. As a consequence, the legacy timeline, with its underlying engine status page's VMA object, is still held and not released on driver unbind. Get the legacy timeline only after successful allocation of the context engine's VMA. v2: Add a note on other submission methods (Krzysztof Karas): Both execlists and GuC submission use lrc_alloc() which seems free from a similar issue. (cherry picked from commit cc43422b3cc79eacff4c5a8ba0d224688ca9dd4f)

Published
Jul 25, 2025
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 12th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

31

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
linuxlinux kernel
debiandebian linux

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Linux). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Linux Linux

    • 5.4affected
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before 60b757730884e4a223152a68d9b5f625dac94119affected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before e47d7d6edc40a6ace7cc04e5893759fee68569f5affected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before f10af34261448610d4048ac6e6af87f80e3881a4affected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before 4c778c96e469fb719b11683e0a3be8ea68052fa2affected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before 40e09506aea1fde1f3e0e04eca531bbb23404bafaffected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before 5a7ae7bebdc4c2ecd48a2c061319956f65c09473affected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before c542d62883f62ececafcb630a1c5010133826beaaffected · git
    • 75d0a7f31eec8ec4a53b4485905800e09dc5091f and later · before a5aa7bc1fca78c7fa127d9e33aa94a0c9066c1d6affected · git
    • before 5.4not affected · semver
Affected versions · NVD (9)

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • debian debian linux11.0
  • linux linux kernel5.4 and later · before 5.4.296
  • linux linux kernel5.5 and later · before 5.10.240
  • linux linux kernel5.11 and later · before 5.15.187
  • linux linux kernel5.16 and later · before 6.1.144
  • linux linux kernel6.2 and later · before 6.6.97
  • linux linux kernel6.7 and later · before 6.12.37
  • linux linux kernel6.13 and later · before 6.15.6
  • linux linux kernel6.16

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12linuxbefore 6.1.147-16.1.147-1
Debian:13linuxbefore 6.12.37-16.12.37-1

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-31431crypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-placeKEV
    90Now
  • CVE-2022-0847A flaw was found in the way the "flags" member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe…KEV
    89Now
  • CVE-2021-22555Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACEKEV
    85Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2025-38384Jul 25, 2025 · mtd: spinand: fix memory leak of ECC engine conf
    22Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2025-38388Jul 25, 2025 · firmware: arm_ffa: Replace mutex with rwlock to avoid sleep in atomic context
    22Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2025-38390Jul 25, 2025 · firmware: arm_ffa: Fix memory leak by freeing notifier callback node
    22Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Linux Linux40e09506aea1fde1f3e0e04eca531bbb23404bafVendor (CNA)
Linux Linux4c778c96e469fb719b11683e0a3be8ea68052fa2Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux5a7ae7bebdc4c2ecd48a2c061319956f65c09473Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux60b757730884e4a223152a68d9b5f625dac94119Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxa5aa7bc1fca78c7fa127d9e33aa94a0c9066c1d6Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxc542d62883f62ececafcb630a1c5010133826beaVendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxe47d7d6edc40a6ace7cc04e5893759fee68569f5Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxf10af34261448610d4048ac6e6af87f80e3881a4Vendor (CNA)
azl3 kernel 6.6.96.2-2 on Azure Linux 3.06.6.104.2-1 · CBL-Mariner ReleasesMicrosoft (MSRC)
cbl2 kernel 5.15.186.1-1 on CBL Mariner 2.05.15.200.1-1 · CBL-Mariner ReleasesMicrosoft (MSRC)
debian:linux6.1.147-1 · Debian:12Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · variant or chain candidate · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

—

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

References

Show all references (9 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records