Medium severity · published Oct 1, 2025
CVE-2025-39923
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: qcom: bam_dma: Fix DT error handling for num-channels/ees When we don't have a clock specified in…
5.5
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
dmaengine: qcom: bam_dma: Fix DT error handling for num-channels/ees
When we don't have a clock specified in the device tree, we have no way to
ensure the BAM is on. This is often the case for remotely-controlled or
remotely-powered BAM instances. In this case, we need to read num-channels
from the DT to have all the necessary information to complete probing.
However, at the moment invalid device trees without clock and without
num-channels still continue probing, because the error handling is missing
return statements. The driver will then later try to read the number of
channels from the registers. This is unsafe, because it relies on boot
firmware and lucky timing to succeed. Unfortunately, the lack of proper
error handling here has been abused for several Qualcomm SoCs upstream,
causing early boot crashes in several situations [1, 2].
Avoid these early crashes by erroring out when any of the required DT
properties are missing. Note that this will break some of the existing DTs
upstream (mainly BAM instances related to the crypto engine). However,
clearly these DTs have never been tested properly, since the error in the
kernel log was just ignored. It's safer to disable the crypto engine for
these broken DTBs.
[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/CY01EKQVWE36.B9X5TDXAREPF@fairphone.com/
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230626145959.646747-1-krzysztof.kozlowski@linaro.org/
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 4% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
KE
Kernel · Linux
4.9.104 before 4.10; 4.14.45 before 4.15; 4.16.13 before 5.4.300; 5.5 before 5.10.245; 5.11 before 5.15.194; 5.16 before 6.1.153; +8 more · source: NVD
DL
Debian Linux · Debian
11.0 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39923
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39923
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0ff9df758af7022d749718fb6b8385cc5693acf3
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d98ba204d8a6db0d986c7f1aefaa0dcd1c007a2
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1fc14731f0be4885e60702b9596d14d9a79cf053
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2e257a6125c63350f00dc42b9674f20fd3cf4a9f
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5068b5254812433e841a40886e695633148d362d
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/555bd16351a35c79efb029a196975a5a27f7fbc4
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