CVE-2025-40327
perf/core: Fix system hang caused by cpu-clock usage
- State
- Published
- Severity
- Not scored
- Published
- Dec 9, 2025
- Updated
- May 23, 2026
- Reserved
- Apr 16, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
perf/core: Fix system hang caused by cpu-clock usage
cpu-clock usage by the async-profiler tool can trigger a system hang, which got bisected back to the following commit by Octavia Togami:
18dbcbfabfff ("perf: Fix the POLL_HUP delivery breakage") causes this issue
The root cause of the hang is that cpu-clock is a special type of SW event which relies on hrtimers. The __perf_event_overflow() callback is invoked from the hrtimer handler for cpu-clock events, and __perf_event_overflow() tries to call cpu_clock_event_stop() to stop the event, which calls htimer_cancel() to cancel the hrtimer.
But that's a recursion into the hrtimer code from a hrtimer handler, which (unsurprisingly) deadlocks.
To fix this bug, use hrtimer_try_to_cancel() instead, and set the PERF_HES_STOPPED flag, which causes perf_swevent_hrtimer() to stop the event once it sees the PERF_HES_STOPPED flag.
[ mingo: Fixed the comments and improved the changelog. ]
Scores
The record has no CVSS score.
Weaknesses
The record names no weakness.
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
LinuxLinux |
|
LinuxLinux |
|
References
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