CVE-2025-68214 — timers: Fix NULL function pointer race in timer_shutdown_sync()

Affected: Linux

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

timers: Fix NULL function pointer race in timer_shutdown_sync()

There is a race condition between timer_shutdown_sync() and timer expiration that can lead to hitting a WARN_ON in expire_timers().

The issue occurs when timer_shutdown_sync() clears the timer function to NULL while the timer is still running on another CPU. The race scenario looks like this:

CPU0 CPU1 <SOFTIRQ> lock_timer_base() expire_timers() base->running_timer = timer; unlock_timer_base() [call_timer_fn enter] mod_timer() ... timer_shutdown_sync() lock_timer_base() // For now, will not detach the timer but only clear its function to NULL if (base->running_timer != timer) ret = detach_if_pending(timer, base, true); if (shutdown) timer->function = NULL; unlock_timer_base() [call_timer_fn exit] lock_timer_base() base->running_timer = NULL; unlock_timer_base() ... // Now timer is pending while its function set to NULL. // next timer trigger <SOFTIRQ> expire_timers() WARN_ON_ONCE(!fn) // hit ... lock_timer_base() // Now timer will detach if (base->running_timer != timer) ret = detach_if_pending(timer, base, true); if (shutdown) timer->function = NULL; unlock_timer_base()

The problem is that timer_shutdown_sync() clears the timer function regardless of whether the timer is currently running. This can leave a pending timer with a NULL functi…

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CVE-2025-68214 — timers: Fix NULL function pointer race in timer_shutdown_sync()