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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2025-38216 json

iommu/vt-d: Restore context entry setup order for aliased devices

published 2025-07-04 16 mo ago modified 2026-10-15 24 d ago also EUVD-2025-20040

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

iommu/vt-d: Restore context entry setup order for aliased devices

Commit 2031c469f816 ("iommu/vt-d: Add support for static identity domain") changed the context entry setup during domain attachment from a set-and-check policy to a clear-and-reset approach. This inadvertently introduced a regression affecting PCI aliased devices behind PCIe-to-PCI bridges.

Specifically, keyboard and touchpad stopped working on several Apple Macbooks with below messages:

kernel: platform pxa2xx-spi.3: Adding to iommu group 20 kernel: input: Apple SPI Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.3/pxa2xx-spi.3/spi_master/spi2/spi-APP000D:00/input/input0 kernel: DMAR: DRHD: handling fault status reg 3 kernel: DMAR: [DMA Read NO_PASID] Request device [00:1e.3] fault addr 0xffffa000 [fault reason 0x06] PTE Read access is not set kernel: DMAR: DRHD: handling fault status reg 3 kernel: DMAR: [DMA Read NO_PASID] Request device [00:1e.3] fault addr 0xffffa000 [fault reason 0x06] PTE Read access is not set kernel: applespi spi-APP000D:00: Error writing to device: 01 0e 00 00 kernel: DMAR: DRHD: handling fault status reg 3 kernel: DMAR: [DMA Read NO_PASID] Request device [00:1e.3] fault addr 0xffffa000 [fault reason 0x06] PTE Read access is not set kernel: DMAR: DRHD: handling fault status reg 3 kernel: applespi spi-APP000D:00: Error writing to device: 01 0e 00 00

Fix this by restoring the previous context setup order.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.12.35, 6.15.4, 6.16
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.35-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38216

  • linux-aws-6.14 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.14.0-1009.9~24.04.1
  • linux-gcp-6.14 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.14.0-1011.11~24.04.1
  • linux-oem-6.14 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.14.0-1007.7
  • linux-riscv-6.14 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.14.0-24.24.1~24.04.1
  • linux-oracle-6.14 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.14.0-1009.9~24.04.1
  • linux-realtime-6.14 Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS 6.14.0-1010.10~24.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38216

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4
  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-obs-qa SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1SUSE-SU-2026:20560-1SUSE-SU-2025:21179-1SUSE-SU-2025:3725-1SUSE-SU-2025:03633-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1openSUSE-SU-2025:15544-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-38216 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: iommu/vt-d: Restore context entry setup order for aliased devices

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-selftests-internal
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
24 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.