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Fencer Vulns
no cvss —

CVE-2025-40120 json

net: usb: asix: hold PM usage ref to avoid PM/MDIO + RTNL deadlock

published 2025-11-12 11 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2025-124963

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 12%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net: usb: asix: hold PM usage ref to avoid PM/MDIO + RTNL deadlock

Prevent USB runtime PM (autosuspend) for AX88772* in bind.

usbnet enables runtime PM (autosuspend) by default, so disabling it via the usb_driver flag is ineffective. On AX88772B, autosuspend shows no measurable power saving with current driver (no link partner, admin up/down). The ~0.453 W -> ~0.248 W drop on v6.1 comes from phylib powering the PHY off on admin-down, not from USB autosuspend.

The real hazard is that with runtime PM enabled, ndo_open() (under RTNL) may synchronously trigger autoresume (usb_autopm_get_interface()) into asix_resume() while the USB PM lock is held. Resume paths then invoke phylink/phylib and MDIO, which also expect RTNL, leading to possible deadlocks or PM lock vs MDIO wake issues.

To avoid this, keep the device runtime-PM active by taking a usage reference in ax88772_bind() and dropping it in unbind(). A non-zero PM usage count blocks runtime suspend regardless of userspace policy (.../power/control - pm_runtime_allow/forbid), making this approach robust against sysfs overrides.

Holding a runtime-PM usage ref does not affect system-wide suspend; system sleep/resume callbacks continue to run as before.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.195, 6.1.156, 6.6.112, 6.12.53, 6.17.3, 6.18
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.158-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.57-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.17.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40120

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-170.180
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-106.106
  • linux Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-14.14
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1100.107
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1050.53
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-1007.7
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1100.109
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1052.55

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40120

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-source Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-38.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-38.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-38.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-38.1.21.15
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.61.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.61.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:20473-1SUSE-SU-2026:20496-1SUSE-SU-2026:20039-1SUSE-SU-2026:20059-1SUSE-SU-2025:4521-1SUSE-SU-2025:4517-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.8.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:20172-1

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-2025-40120 updated cvss 4.7

kernel: net: usb: asix: hold PM usage ref to avoid PM/MDIO + RTNL deadlock

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 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
    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

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

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.