CVE-2025-38104: drm/amdgpu: Replace Mutex with Spinlock for RLCG register access to avoid Priority Inversion in SRIOV

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-38104 is a medium (CVSS 4.7) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8.1% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 18-04-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 23-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/amdgpu: Replace Mutex with Spinlock for RLCG register access to avoid Priority Inversion in SRIOV RLCG Register Access is a way for virtual functions to safely access GPU registers in a virtualized environment., including TLB flushes and register reads. When multiple threads or VFs try to access the same registers simultaneously, it can lead to race conditions. By using the RLCG interface, the driver can serialize access to the registers. This means that only one thread can access the registers at a time, preventing conflicts and ensuring that operations are performed correctly. Additionally, when a low-priority task holds a mutex that a high-priority task needs, ie., If a thread holding a spinlock tries to acquire a mutex, it can lead to priority inversion. register access in amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw especially in a fast code path is critical. The call stack shows that the function amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw is being called, which attempts to acquire the mutex. This function is invoked from amdgpu_sriov_wreg, which in turn is called from gmc_v11_0_flush_gpu_tlb. The [ BUG: Invalid wait context ] indicates that a thread is trying to acquire a mutex while it is in a context that does not allow it to sleep (like holding a spinlock). Fixes the below: [ 253.013423] ============================= [ 253.013434] [ BUG: Invalid wait context ] [ 253.013446] 6.12.0-amdstaging-drm-next-lol-050225 #14 Tainted: G U OE [ 253.013464] ----------------------------- [ 253.013475] kworker/0:1/10 is trying to lock: [ 253.013487] ffff9f30542e3cf8 (&adev->virt.rlcg_reg_lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.013815] other info that might help us debug this: [ 253.013827] context-{4:4} [ 253.013835] 3 locks held by kworker/0:1/10: [ 253.013847] #0: ffff9f3040050f58 ((wq_completion)events){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x3f5/0x680 [ 253.013877] #1: ffffb789c008be40 ((work_completion)(&wfc.work)){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: process_one_work+0x1d6/0x680 [ 253.013905] #2: ffff9f3054281838 (&adev->gmc.invalidate_lock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: gmc_v11_0_flush_gpu_tlb+0x198/0x4f0 [amdgpu] [ 253.014154] stack backtrace: [ 253.014164] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 10 Comm: kworker/0:1 Tainted: G U OE 6.12.0-amdstaging-drm-next-lol-050225 #14 [ 253.014189] Tainted: [U]=USER, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE [ 253.014203] Hardware name: Microsoft Corporation Virtual Machine/Virtual Machine, BIOS Hyper-V UEFI Release v4.1 11/18/2024 [ 253.014224] Workqueue: events work_for_cpu_fn [ 253.014241] Call Trace: [ 253.014250] <TASK> [ 253.014260] dump_stack_lvl+0x9b/0xf0 [ 253.014275] dump_stack+0x10/0x20 [ 253.014287] __lock_acquire+0xa47/0x2810 [ 253.014303] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.014321] lock_acquire+0xd1/0x300 [ 253.014333] ? amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.014562] ? __lock_acquire+0xa6b/0x2810 [ 253.014578] __mutex_lock+0x85/0xe20 [ 253.014591] ? amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.014782] ? sched_clock_noinstr+0x9/0x10 [ 253.014795] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.014808] ? local_clock_noinstr+0xe/0xc0 [ 253.014822] ? amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.015012] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.015029] mutex_lock_nested+0x1b/0x30 [ 253.015044] ? mutex_lock_nested+0x1b/0x30 [ 253.015057] amdgpu_virt_rlcg_reg_rw+0xf6/0x330 [amdgpu] [ 253.015249] amdgpu_sriov_wreg+0xc5/0xd0 [amdgpu] [ 253.015435] gmc_v11_0_flush_gpu_tlb+0x44b/0x4f0 [amdgpu] [ 253.015667] gfx_v11_0_hw_init+0x499/0x29c0 [amdgpu] [ 253.015901] ? __pfx_smu_v13_0_update_pcie_parameters+0x10/0x10 [amdgpu] [ 253.016159] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 253.016173] ? smu_hw_init+0x18d/0x300 [amdgpu] [ 253.016403] amdgpu_device_init+0x29ad/0x36a0 [amdgpu] [ 253.016614] amdgpu_driver_load_kms+0x1a/0xc0 [amdgpu] [ 253.0170 ---truncated---

• CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper SynchronizationThe product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.