CVE-2025-21767: linux Improper Locking

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-21767 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) Improper Locking vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6.9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 27-02-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 15-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: clocksource: Use migrate_disable() to avoid calling get_random_u32() in atomic context The following bug report happened with a PREEMPT_RT kernel: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:48 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 2012, name: kwatchdog preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 get_random_u32+0x4f/0x110 clocksource_verify_choose_cpus+0xab/0x1a0 clocksource_verify_percpu.part.0+0x6b/0x330 clocksource_watchdog_kthread+0x193/0x1a0 It is due to the fact that clocksource_verify_choose_cpus() is invoked with preemption disabled. This function invokes get_random_u32() to obtain random numbers for choosing CPUs. The batched_entropy_32 local lock and/or the base_crng.lock spinlock in driver/char/random.c will be acquired during the call. In PREEMPT_RT kernel, they are both sleeping locks and so cannot be acquired in atomic context. Fix this problem by using migrate_disable() to allow smp_processor_id() to be reliably used without introducing atomic context. preempt_disable() is then called after clocksource_verify_choose_cpus() but before the clocksource measurement is being run to avoid introducing unexpected latency.

• CWE-667Improper LockingThe product does not properly acquire or release a lock on a resource, leading to unexpected resource state changes and behaviors.