{"id":"CVE-2025-38311","summary":"iavf: get rid of the crit lock","details":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\niavf: get rid of the crit lock\n\nGet rid of the crit lock.\nThat frees us from the error prone logic of try_locks.\n\nThanks to netdev_lock() by Jakub it is now easy, and in most cases we were\nprotected by it already - replace crit lock by netdev lock when it was not\nthe case.\n\nLockdep reports that we should cancel the work under crit_lock [splat1],\nand that was the scheme we have mostly followed since [1] by Slawomir.\nBut when that is done we still got into deadlocks [splat2]. So instead\nwe should look at the bigger problem, namely \"weird locking/scheduling\"\nof the iavf. The first step to fix that is to remove the crit lock.\nI will followup with a -next series that simplifies scheduling/tasks.\n\nCancel the work without netdev lock (weird unlock+lock scheme),\nto fix the [splat2] (which would be totally ugly if we would kept\nthe crit lock).\n\nExtend protected part of iavf_watchdog_task() to include scheduling\nmore work.\n\nNote that the removed comment in iavf_reset_task() was misplaced,\nit belonged to inside of the removed if condition, so it's gone now.\n\n[splat1] - w/o this patch - The deadlock during VF removal:\n     WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected\n     sh/3825 is trying to acquire lock:\n      ((work_completion)(&(&adapter-\u003ewatchdog_task)-\u003ework)){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: start_flush_work+0x1a1/0x470\n          but task is already holding lock:\n      (&adapter-\u003ecrit_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: iavf_remove+0xd1/0x690 [iavf]\n          which lock already depends on the new lock.\n\n[splat2] - when cancelling work under crit lock, w/o this series,\n\t   see [2] for the band aid attempt\n    WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected\n    sh/3550 is trying to acquire lock:\n    ((wq_completion)iavf){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: touch_wq_lockdep_map+0x26/0x90\n        but task is already holding lock:\n    (&dev-\u003elock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: iavf_remove+0xa6/0x6e0 [iavf]\n        which lock already depends on the new lock.\n\n[1] fc2e6b3b132a (\"iavf: Rework mutexes for better synchronisation\")\n[2] https://github.com/pkitszel/linux/commit/52dddbfc2bb60294083f5711a158a","modified":"2026-04-02T12:47:55.437942Z","published":"2025-07-10T07:42:20.006Z","related":["CGA-87mj-2f5m-rhpp","SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1","SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1","SUSE-SU-2025:21179-1","openSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1"],"database_specific":{"osv_generated_from":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/38xxx/CVE-2025-38311.json","cna_assigner":"Linux"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/120f28a6f314fef7f282c99f196923fe44081cad"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/620ab4d6215de0b25227f9fff1a8c7fb66837cb8"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/38xxx/CVE-2025-38311.json"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38311"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git"}],"affected":[{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","events":[{"introduced":"d1639a17319ba78a018280cd2df6577a7e5d9fab"},{"fixed":"620ab4d6215de0b25227f9fff1a8c7fb66837cb8"},{"fixed":"120f28a6f314fef7f282c99f196923fe44081cad"}]},{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"last_affected":"2647ff59c52ef42c853c905817ed1a7f092d59a5"},{"last_affected":"63d14a43128540016ebd4f7fa3ad3a2f0d6e642c"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-38311.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5"}