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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-37917: Linux kernel · net: ethernet: mtk-star-emac: fix spinlock recursion issues on rx/tx poll

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 10 Nov 2026, 13:36 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.5High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CNA (Linux)CVSS 3.17.5
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 20 May 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 10 Nov 2026.

What to do

AI-suggested

A fix for this vulnerability has been implemented in the Linux kernel by changing the locking mechanism in the mtk-star-emac driver to use spin_lock_irqsave and spin_unlock_irqrestore. Users should update to the fixed kernel version once available. Since no specific fixed versions are provided, check the official Linux kernel advisories or repositories for the patch and apply it promptly to mitigate the issue.

Description

CVE-2025-37917 addresses a spinlock recursion issue in the mtk-star-emac Ethernet driver within the Linux kernel. The vulnerability arises from improper use of spin_lock and spin_unlock in the rx/tx poll functions, which can cause kernel crashes due to spinlock recursion. The fix involves replacing these calls with spin_lock_irqsave and spin_unlock_irqrestore to prevent recursion when enabling DMA interrupts.

References

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