Local crash via pinmux owner race
Published Aug 22, 2025 · Updated May 23, 2026
Race condition in affected Linux kernel pinmux releases allows local users to crash the system by repeatedly requesting the same pin. In drivers/pinctrl/pinmux.c, pin_free() clears desc->mux_owner after another thread has incremented desc->mux_usecount and assigned a new owner, leaving a nonzero use count paired with a null owner. Triggering the fault requires low-privileged local access and a high-complexity interleaving of concurrent pin requests; the documented consequence is a null-pointer crash.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in affected Linux kernel pinmux releases allows local users to crash the system by repeatedly requesting the same pin. In drivers/pinctrl/pinmux.c, pin_free() clears desc->mux_owner after another thread has incremented desc->mux_usecount and assigned a new owner, leaving a nonzero use count paired with a null owner. Triggering the fault requires low-privileged local access and a high-complexity interleaving of concurrent pin requests; the documented consequence is a null-pointer crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-38632
- Published
- Aug 22, 2025
- Updated
- May 23, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 22, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 23, 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=2da32aed4a97ca1d70fb8b77926f72f30ce5fb4b <9b2a3e7189028aa7c4d53a84364f2ea9fb209787
- Affected versionversion=5a3e85c3c397c781393ea5fb2f45b1f60f8a4e6e <0b075c011032f88d1cfde3b45d6dcf08b44140eb
- Affected versionversion=5a3e85c3c397c781393ea5fb2f45b1f60f8a4e6e <22b585cbd67d14df3b91529d1b990661c300faa9
- Affected versionversion=5a3e85c3c397c781393ea5fb2f45b1f60f8a4e6e <b7bd6e3971eb7f0e34d2fdce1b18b08094e0c804
- Affected versionversion=6.12.5 <6.12.42
- Affected versionversion=6.13
- Affected versionversion=6.6.66 <6.6.102
- Affected versionversion=c11e2ec9a780f54982a187ee10ffd1b810715c85 <9ea3f6b9a67be3476e331ce51cac316c2614a564
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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