Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2025-38359
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: s390/mm: Fix in_atomic() handling in do_secure_storage_access() Kernel user spaces accesses to not exported pages in atomic context incorrectly try to resolve the page fault. With debug options enabled call traces like this can be seen: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1523 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 419074, name: qemu-system-s39 preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 INFO: lockdep is turned off. Preemption disabled at: [<00000383ea47cfa2>] copy_page_from_iter_atomic+0xa2/0x8a0 CPU: 12 UID: 0 PID: 419074 Comm: qemu-system-s39 Tainted: G W 6.16.0-20250531.rc0.git0.69b3a602feac.63.fc42.s390x+debug #1 PREEMPT Tainted: [W]=WARN Hardware name: IBM 3931 A01 703 (LPAR) Call Trace: [<00000383e990d282>] dump_stack_lvl+0xa2/0xe8 [<00000383e99bf152>] __might_resched+0x292/0x2d0 [<00000383eaa7c374>] down_read+0x34/0x2d0 [<00000383e99432f8>] do_secure_storage_access+0x108/0x360 [<00000383eaa724b0>] __do_pgm_check+0x130/0x220 [<00000383eaa842e4>] pgm_check_handler+0x114/0x160 [<00000383ea47d028>] copy_page_from_iter_atomic+0x128/0x8a0 ([<00000383ea47d016>] copy_page_from_iter_atomic+0x116/0x8a0) [<00000383e9c45eae>] generic_perform_write+0x16e/0x310 [<00000383e9eb87f4>] ext4_buffered_write_iter+0x84/0x160 [<00000383e9da0de4>] vfs_write+0x1c4/0x460 [<00000383e9da123c>] ksys_write+0x7c/0x100 [<00000383eaa7284e>] __do_syscall+0x15e/0x280 [<00000383eaa8417e>] system_call+0x6e/0x90 INFO: lockdep is turned off. It is not allowed to take the mmap_lock while in atomic context. Therefore handle such a secure storage access fault as if the accessed page is not mapped: the uaccess function will return -EFAULT, and the caller has to deal with this. Usually this means that the access is retried in process context, which allows to resolve the page fault (or in this case export the page).
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisShared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.
General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
< 6.15.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped6.15.5
Linux Kernel 6.15.5
- Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 6.15.5 or later to resolve the improper locking issue in do_secure_storage_access()
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-38359 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-38359 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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