CVE-2025-38671: i2c: qup: jump out of the loop in case of timeout

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: 2025-08-22 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: qup: jump out of the loop in case of timeout Original logic only sets the return value but doesn't jump out of the loop if the bus is kept active by a client. This is not expected. A malicious or buggy i2c client can hang the kernel in this case and should be avoided. This is observed during a long time test with a PCA953x GPIO extender. Fix it by changing the logic to not only sets the return value, but also jumps out of the loop and return to the caller with -ETIMEDOUT.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 11.0
Linux kernel: from 4.17 before 5.4.297; from 5.5 before 5.10.241; from 5.11 before 5.15.190; from 5.16 before 6.1.148; from 6.2 before 6.6.101; from 6.7 before 6.12.41 — fixed in 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 5.4.297, 6.1.148, 6.12.41, 6.15.9

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 5.4.297, 6.1.148. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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