CVE-2025-40231 json
vsock: fix lock inversion in vsock_assign_transport()
published 2025-12-04 11 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2025-201228
- 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:
vsock: fix lock inversion in vsock_assign_transport()
Syzbot reported a potential lock inversion deadlock between vsock_register_mutex and sk_lock-AF_VSOCK when vsock_linger() is called.
The issue was introduced by commit 687aa0c5581b ("vsock: Fix transport_* TOCTOU") which added vsock_register_mutex locking in vsock_assign_transport() around the transport->release() call, that can call vsock_linger(). vsock_assign_transport() can be called with sk_lock held. vsock_linger() calls sk_wait_event() that temporarily releases and re-acquires sk_lock. During this window, if another thread hold vsock_register_mutex while trying to acquire sk_lock, a circular dependency is created.
Fix this by releasing vsock_register_mutex before calling transport->release() and vsock_deassign_transport(). This is safe because we don't need to hold vsock_register_mutex while releasing the old transport, and we ensure the new transport won't disappear by obtaining a module reference first via try_module_get().
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 5.10.246, 5.15.196, 6.1.158, 6.6.115, 6.12.56, 6.16, 6.17.6, 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-2025-40231
- 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-2025-40231
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 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
- kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
- kernel-source Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
- kernel-default Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
- kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
- kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1.21.16
- kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1SUSE-SU-2026:20477-1SUSE-SU-2026:20498-1SUSE-SU-2026:20207-1SUSE-SU-2026:20220-1
- kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
- kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20145-1
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce4f856c64f0bc30e29302a0ce41f4295ca391c5 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/09bba278ccde25a14b6e5088a9e65a8717d0cccf commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/b44182c116778feaa05da52a426aeb9da1878dcf commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/42ed0784d11adebf748711e503af0eb9f1e6d81d commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/251caee792a21eb0b781aab91362b422c945e162 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/a2a4346eea8b4cb75037dbcb20b98cb454324f80 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/f7c877e7535260cc7a21484c994e8ce7e8cb6780 commit
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-2025-40231 updated cvss 5.5
kernel: vsock: fix lock inversion in vsock_assign_transport()
-
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 kernelaffected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
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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 morenot 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
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/ce4f856c64f0bc30e29302a0ce41f4295ca391c5
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/09bba278ccde25a14b6e5088a9e65a8717d0cccf
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/b44182c116778feaa05da52a426aeb9da1878dcf
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/42ed0784d11adebf748711e503af0eb9f1e6d81d
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/251caee792a21eb0b781aab91362b422c945e162
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/a2a4346eea8b4cb75037dbcb20b98cb454324f80
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/f7c877e7535260cc7a21484c994e8ce7e8cb6780
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2025-40231
- NVD CVE-2025-40231
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