Security assessments indicate that CVE-2025-38633 presents a notable risk, potentially requiring prompt mitigation.
Status: Analyzed
Last updated: 🕔 26 Nov 2025, 17:11 UTC
Originally published on: 🕓 22 Aug 2025, 16:15 UTC
Time between publication and last update: 96 days
CVSS Release: version 3
nvd@nist.gov
Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVE-2025-38633: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: clk: spacemit: mark K1 pll1_d8 as critical The pll1_d8 clock is enabled by the boot loader, and is ultimately a parent for numerous clocks, including those used by APB and AXI buses. Guodong Xu discovered that this clock got disabled while responding to getting -EPROBE_DEFER when requesting a reset controller. The needed clock (CLK_DMA, along with its parents) had already been enabled. To respond to the probe deferral return, the CLK_DMA clock was disabled, and this led to parent clocks also reducing their enable count. When the enable count for pll1_d8 was decremented it became 0, which caused it to be disabled. This led to a system hang. Marking that clock critical resolves this by preventing it from being disabled. Define a new macro CCU_FACTOR_GATE_DEFINE() to allow clock flags to be supplied for a CCU_FACTOR_GATE clock.
The exploitability of CVE-2025-38633 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
CVE-2025-38633 presents an accessible attack vector with minimal effort required. Restricting access controls and implementing security updates are critical to reducing exploitation risks.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2025-38633, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2025-38633, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
NVD-CWE-noinfo
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