Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-39958

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.16.9 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu/s390: Make attach succeed when the device was surprise removed When a PCI device is removed with surprise hotplug, there may still be attempts to attach the device to the default domain as part of tear down via (__iommu_release_dma_ownership()), or because the removal happens during probe (__iommu_probe_device()). In both cases zpci_register_ioat() fails with a cc value indicating that the device handle is invalid. This is because the device is no longer part of the instance as far as the hypervisor is concerned. Currently this leads to an error return and s390_iommu_attach_device() fails. This triggers the WARN_ON() in __iommu_group_set_domain_nofail() because attaching to the default domain must never fail. With the device fenced by the hypervisor no DMAs to or from memory are possible and the IOMMU translations have no effect. Proceed as if the registration was successful and let the hotplug event handling clean up the device. This is similar to how devices in the error state are handled since commit 59bbf596791b ("iommu/s390: Make attach succeed even if the device is in error state") except that for removal the domain will not be registered later. This approach was also previously discussed at the link. Handle both cases, error state and removal, in a helper which checks if the error needs to be propagated or ignored. Avoid magic number condition codes by using the pre-existing, but never used, defines for PCI load/store condition codes and rename them to reflect that they apply to all PCI instructions.

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 analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
Affected:>= 6.2, < 6.16.9= 6.17

CVSS 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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.16.9 or later
Fixed in 6.16.9
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 6.16.9 or later, or any stable release > 6.17 (e.g., 6.17.1, 6.18, etc.)

  1. Identify the current kernel version using `uname -r` or `cat /proc/version`
  2. Check if the current version is affected: version >= 6.2 and < 6.16.9, or = 6.17
  3. If affected, upgrade the kernel to version 6.16.9 or later, or to a version > 6.17 that includes the fix
  4. After kernel upgrade, reboot the system to apply the new kernel
  5. Verify the fix is present by checking the s390_iommu code in the new kernel, or by confirming the kernel version is >= 6.16.9 or > 6.17
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade considerations apply - ensure compatibility with existing system configurations and drivers before deploying in production

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-39958 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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