riscv: save the SR_SUM status over switches
CVE-2025-38261 · published 9 Jul 2025
How serious is it
- Severity: high, CVSS score 7.8 out of 10.
- No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
- Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
- No public exploit in Exploit-DB.
Is your app affected by CVE-2025-38261?
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Who is affected
- Linux Linux: 76d2a0493a17d4c8ecc781366850c3c4f8e1a446 to < 1b63cdc0d63ae33522b4714642fbefa298acc274, 76d2a0493a17d4c8ecc781366850c3c4f8e1a446 to < 9e7005c3638134df5b7df467c1d884a2482c77cb, 76d2a0493a17d4c8ecc781366850c3c4f8e1a446 to < 69ea599a8dab93a620c92c255be4239a06290a77, 76d2a0493a17d4c8ecc781366850c3c4f8e1a446 to < 788aa64c01f1262310b4c1fb827a36df170d86ea
- Linux Linux: 4.15
How to check
- Find out whether you run the affected product and which version, then compare it with the versions above.
How to fix
Copies a prompt for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex that asks it to check whether you run this product.
- Apply the vendor's update or mitigation from the references below. If there is none yet, limit exposure of the affected service until there is.
- If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.
The advisory
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
riscv: save the SR_SUM status over switches
When threads/tasks are switched we need to ensure the old execution's
SR_SUM state is saved and the new thread has the old SR_SUM state
restored.
The issue was seen under heavy load especially with the syz-stress tool
running, with crashes as follows in schedule_tail:
Unable to handle kernel access to user memory without uaccess routines
at virtual address 000000002749f0d0
Oops [#1]
Modules linked in:
CPU: 1 PID: 4875 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted
5.12.0-rc2-syzkaller-00467-g0d7588ab9ef9 #0
Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT)
epc : schedule_tail+0x72/0xb2 kernel/sched/core.c:4264
ra : task_pid_vnr include/linux/sched.h:1421 [inline]
ra : schedule_tail+0x70/0xb2 kernel/sched/core.c:4264
epc : ffffffe00008c8b0 ra : ffffffe00008c8ae sp : ffffffe025d17ec0
gp : ffffffe005d25378 tp : ffffffe00f0d0000 t0 : 0000000000000000
t1 : 0000000000000001 t2 : 00000000000f4240 s0 : ffffffe025d17ee0
s1 : 000000002749f0d0 a0 : 000000000000002a a1 : 0000000000000003
a2 : 1ffffffc0cfac500 a3 : ffffffe0000c80cc a4 : 5ae9db91c19bbe00
a5 : 0000000000000000 a6 : 0000000000f00000 a7 : ffffffe000082eba
s2 : 0000000000040000 s3 : ffffffe00eef96c0 s4 : ffffffe022c77fe0
s5 : 0000000000004000 s6 : ffffffe067d74e00 s7 : ffffffe067d74850
s8 : ffffffe067d73e18 s9 : ffffffe067d74e00 s10: ffffffe00eef96e8
s11: 000000ae6cdf8368 t3 : 5ae9db91c19bbe00 t4 : ffffffc4043cafb2
t5 : ffffffc4043cafba t6 : 0000000000040000
status: 0000000000000120 badaddr: 000000002749f0d0 cause:
000000000000000f
Call Trace:
[<ffffffe00008c8b0>] schedule_tail+0x72/0xb2 kernel/sched/core.c:4264
[<ffffffe000005570>] ret_from_exception+0x0/0x14
Dumping ftrace buffer:
(ftrace buffer empty)
---[ end trace b5f8f9231dc87dda ]---
The issue comes from the put_user() in schedule_tail
(kernel/sched/core.c) doing the following:
asmlinkage __visible void schedule_tail(struct task_struct *prev)
{
...
if (current->set_child_tid)
put_user(task_pid_vnr(current), current->set_child_tid);
...
}
the put_user() macro causes the code sequence to come out as follows:
1: __enable_user_access()
2: reg = task_pid_vnr(current);
3: *current->set_child_tid = reg;
4: __disable_user_access()
The problem is that we may have a sleeping function as argument which
could clear SR_SUM causing the panic above. This was fixed by
evaluating the argument of the put_user() macro outside the user-enabled
section in commit 285a76bb2cf5 ("riscv: evaluate put_user() arg before
enabling user access")"
In order for riscv to take advantage of unsafe_get/put_XXX() macros and
to avoid the same issue we had with put_user() and sleeping functions we
must ensure code flow can go through switch_to() from within a region of
code with SR_SUM enabled and come back with SR_SUM still enabled. This
patch addresses the problem allowing future work to enable full use of
unsafe_get/put_XXX() macros without needing to take a CSR bit flip cost
on every access. Make switch_to() save and restore SR_SUM.
Check your whole app
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References
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b63cdc0d63ae33522b4714642fbefa298acc274
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/9e7005c3638134df5b7df467c1d884a2482c77cb
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/69ea599a8dab93a620c92c255be4239a06290a77
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/788aa64c01f1262310b4c1fb827a36df170d86ea
Merged from CVE List. Last updated 25 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON