CVE-2025-38689
Published: Sep 4, 2025
Modified: May 11, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/fpu: Fix NULL dereference in avx512_status() Problem ------- With CONFIG_X86_DEBUG_FPU enabled, reading /proc/[kthread]/arch_status causes a warning and a NULL pointer dereference. This is because the AVX-512 timestamp code uses x86_task_fpu() but doesn't check it for NULL. CONFIG_X86_DEBUG_FPU addles that function for kernel threads (PF_KTHREAD specifically), making it return NULL. The point of the warning was to ensure that kernel threads only access task->fpu after going through kernel_fpu_begin()/_end(). Note: all kernel tasks exposed in /proc have a valid task->fpu. Solution -------- One option is to silence the warning and check for NULL from x86_task_fpu(). However, that warning is fairly fresh and seems like a defense against misuse of the FPU state in kernel threads. Instead, stop outputting AVX-512_elapsed_ms for kernel threads altogether. The data was garbage anyway because avx512_timestamp is only updated for user threads, not kernel threads. If anyone ever wants to track kernel thread AVX-512 use, they can come back later and do it properly, separate from this bug fix. [ dhansen: mostly rewrite changelog ]
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
Linux | Linux | affected 22aafe3bcb67472effdea1ccf0df20280192bbaf - < 2ca887e81095b99d890a8878841f36f4920181e6affected 22aafe3bcb67472effdea1ccf0df20280192bbaf - < 31cd31c9e17ece125aad27259501a2af69ccb020 |
Linux | Linux | affected 6.16unaffected 0 - < 6.16unaffected 6.16.2 - <= 6.16.*unaffected 6.17 - <= * |
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