What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-38038: cpufreq: amd-pstate: Remove unnecessary driver_lock in set_boost

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2025-06-18 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cpufreq: amd-pstate: Remove unnecessary driver_lock in set_boost set_boost is a per-policy function call, hence a driver wide lock is unnecessary. Also this mutex_acquire can collide with the mutex_acquire from the mode-switch path in status_store(), which can lead to a deadlock. So, remove it.

Affected products

• Linux kernel: from 5.17 before 6.12.31; from 6.13 before 6.14.9 — fixed in 6.12.31, 6.14.9

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.31, 6.14.9. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/61e931ee145eeab8196e585ff4334870b130b744
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd347d071713234586762d79c5a691785e9be418
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/db1cafc77aaaf871509da06f4a864e9af6d6791f

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