Kernel panic via premature legacy driver removal
Published May 9, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Denial of service in the Linux fsl-qspi driver allows local users to panic the kernel by unbinding an i.MX8MQ SPI device. The driver mixes device-managed APIs with a legacy remove callback, so detach invokes manual removal before device-managed cleanup and violates the release sequence. Access to the privileged sysfs driver-unbind control on a system with the fsl-quadspi device is required; detaching it crashes the host.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the Linux fsl-qspi driver allows local users to panic the kernel by unbinding an i.MX8MQ SPI device. The driver mixes device-managed APIs with a legacy remove callback, so detach invokes manual removal before device-managed cleanup and violates the release sequence. Access to the privileged sysfs driver-unbind control on a system with the fsl-quadspi device is required; detaching it crashes the host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-37842
- Published
- May 9, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 9, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.2
- Affected versionversion=8fcb830a00f0980ffe38d223cdd9a4d2d24da476 <40369bfe717e96e26650eeecfa5a6363563df6e4
- Affected versionversion=8fcb830a00f0980ffe38d223cdd9a4d2d24da476 <439688dbe82baa10d4430dc3252bb5ef1183a171
- Affected versionversion=8fcb830a00f0980ffe38d223cdd9a4d2d24da476 <50ae352c1848cab408fb4f7d7f50c71f818bbdbf
- Affected versionversion=8fcb830a00f0980ffe38d223cdd9a4d2d24da476 <f68b27d82a749117d9c7d7f33fa53f46373e38e2
- Affected versionversion=8fcb830a00f0980ffe38d223cdd9a4d2d24da476 <f9bfb3a5f6f616f3eb7665c8ff3bcb9760ae33c8
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- i.MX8MQ fsl-quadspi unbind triggerfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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