# CVE-2025-38687: comedi: fix race between polling and detaching

- Severity: CVSS 7.3 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-09-04 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 3.14

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: comedi: fix race between polling and detaching syzbot reports a use-after-free in comedi in the below link, which is due to comedi gladly removing the allocated async area even though poll requests are still active on the wait_queue_head inside of it. This can cause a use-after-free when the poll entries are later triggered or removed, as the memory for the wait_queue_head has been freed. We need to check there are no tasks queued on any of the subdevices' wait queues before allowing the device to be detached by the `COMEDI_DEVCONFIG` ioctl. Tasks will read-lock `dev->attach_lock` before adding themselves to the subdevice wait queue, so fix the problem in the `COMEDI_DEVCONFIG` ioctl handler by write-locking `dev->attach_lock` before checking that all of the subdevices are safe to be deleted. This includes testing for any sleepers on the subdevices' wait queues. It remains locked until the device has been detached. This requires the `comedi_device_detach()` function to be refactored slightly, moving the bulk of it into new function `comedi_device_detach_locked()`. Note that the refactor of `comedi_device_detach()` results in `comedi_device_cancel_all()` now being called while `dev->attach_lock` is write-locked, which wasn't the case previously, but that does not matter. Thanks to Jens Axboe for diagnosing the problem and co-developing this patch.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
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## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe67122ba781df44a1a9716eb1dfd751321ab512
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd4286123d6948ff638ea9cd5818ae4796d5d252
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d85fac8729c9acfd72368faff1d576ec585e5c8f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f989f9d05492028afd2bded4b42023c57d8a76e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5c4a2ffcbd052c69bbf4680677d4c4eaa5a252d4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/017198079551a2a5cf61eae966af3c4b145e1f3b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/71ca60d2e631cf9c63bcbc7017961c61ff04e419
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5724e82df4f9a4be62908362c97d522d25de75dd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/35b6fc51c666fc96355be5cd633ed0fe4ccf68b2

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