CVE-2025-38352: Linux Kernel Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Condition Vulnerability

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2025-09-04
EPSS: 1.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2025-07-22 · updated 2026-09-08
Weakness: CWE-367

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: posix-cpu-timers: fix race between handle_posix_cpu_timers() and posix_cpu_timer_del() If an exiting non-autoreaping task has already passed exit_notify() and calls handle_posix_cpu_timers() from IRQ, it can be reaped by its parent or debugger right after unlock_task_sighand(). If a concurrent posix_cpu_timer_del() runs at that moment, it won't be able to detect timer->it.cpu.firing != 0: cpu_timer_task_rcu() and/or lock_task_sighand() will fail. Add the tsk->exit_state check into run_posix_cpu_timers() to fix this. This fix is not needed if CONFIG_POSIX_CPU_TIMERS_TASK_WORK=y, because exit_task_work() is called before exit_notify(). But the check still makes sense, task_work_add(&tsk->posix_cputimers_work.work) will fail anyway in this case.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 11.0
Linux kernel: from 2.6.36 before 5.4.295; from 5.5 before 5.10.239; from 5.11 before 5.15.186; from 5.16 before 6.1.142; from 6.2 before 6.6.94; from 6.7 before 6.12.34 — fixed in 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 5.4.295, 6.1.142, 6.12.34, 6.15.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 5.4.295, 6.1.142. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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