CVE-2025-38017: vulnerability in Linux
fs/eventpoll: fix endless busy loop after timeout has expired
Published · Updated
3Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackepss 0.2%
exploitation probability
0.2%top 95% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/eventpoll: fix endless busy loop after timeout has expired
After commit 0a65bc27bd64 ("eventpoll: Set epoll timeout if it's in
the future"), the following program would immediately enter a busy
loop in the kernel:
```
int main() {
int e = epoll_create1(0);
struct epoll_event event = {.events = EPOLLIN};
epoll_ctl(e, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 0, &event);
const struct timespec timeout = {.tv_nsec = 1};
epoll_pwait2(e, &event, 1, &timeout, 0);
}
```
This happens because the given (non-zero) timeout of 1 nanosecond
usually expires before ep_poll() is entered and then
ep_schedule_timeout() returns false, but `timed_out` is never set
because the code line that sets it is skipped. This quickly turns
into a soft lockup, RCU stalls and deadlocks, inflicting severe
headaches to the whole system.
When the timeout has expired, we don't need to schedule a hrtimer, but
we should set the `timed_out` variable. Therefore, I suggest moving
the ep_schedule_timeout() check into the `timed_out` expression
instead of skipping it.
brauner: Note that there was an earlier fix by Joe Damato in response to
my bug report in [1].
Affected products
Linux · LinuxRelated CVEs — Linux
In the same product, most dangerous first.
CVE-2026-31431HIGHcrypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-placeEPSS 98.1%KEVCVE-2026-46300HIGHnet: skbuff: preserve shared-frag marker during coalescingEPSS 10.2%KEVCVE-2024-53197HIGHALSA: usb-audio: Fix potential out-of-bound accesses for Extigy and Mbox devicesEPSS 4.1%KEVCVE-2024-53104HIGHmedia: uvcvideo: Skip parsing frames of type UVC_VS_UNDEFINED in uvc_parse_formatEPSS 3.4%KEVCVE-2025-39682CRITICALtls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_listEPSS 3.3%KEVCVE-2024-36971HIGHnet: fix __dst_negative_advice() raceEPSS 2.7%KEV