Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2025-39923
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: qcom: bam_dma: Fix DT error handling for num-channels/ees When we don't have a clock specified in the device tree, we have no way to ensure the BAM is on. This is often the case for remotely-controlled or remotely-powered BAM instances. In this case, we need to read num-channels from the DT to have all the necessary information to complete probing. However, at the moment invalid device trees without clock and without num-channels still continue probing, because the error handling is missing return statements. The driver will then later try to read the number of channels from the registers. This is unsafe, because it relies on boot firmware and lucky timing to succeed. Unfortunately, the lack of proper error handling here has been abused for several Qualcomm SoCs upstream, causing early boot crashes in several situations [1, 2]. Avoid these early crashes by erroring out when any of the required DT properties are missing. Note that this will break some of the existing DTs upstream (mainly BAM instances related to the crypto engine). However, clearly these DTs have never been tested properly, since the error in the kernel log was just ignored. It's safer to disable the crypto engine for these broken DTBs. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/CY01EKQVWE36.B9X5TDXAREPF@fairphone.com/ [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230626145959.646747-1-krzysztof.kozlowski@linaro.org/
EPSS: 0.001 (3.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 48d163b1aa6e7f650c0b7a4f9c61c387a6def868, 4.14.45, 6.12.48
- Linux Linux_kernel — versions 6.17
- Debian Debian_linux — versions 11.0
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-39923?
- CVE-2025-39923 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-10-01.
- How severe is CVE-2025-39923?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2025-39923 known to be exploited?
- 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.