Vulnerability · Published Nov 12, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2025-40122perf/x86/intel: Fix IA32_PMC_x_CFG_B MSRs access error

Unrated

In plain English

A security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 10% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS )–Not rated
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 90.3% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/x86/intel: Fix IA32_PMC_x_CFG_B MSRs access error When running perf_fuzzer on PTL, sometimes the below "unchecked MSR access error" is seen when accessing IA32_PMC_x_CFG_B MSRs. [ 55.611268] unchecked MSR access error: WRMSR to 0x1986 (tried to write 0x0000000200000001) at rIP: 0xffffffffac564b28 (native_write_msr+0x8/0x30) [ 55.611280] Call Trace: [ 55.611282] <TASK> [ 55.611284] ? intel_pmu_config_acr+0x87/0x160 [ 55.611289] intel_pmu_enable_acr+0x6d/0x80 [ 55.611291] intel_pmu_enable_event+0xce/0x460 [ 55.611293] x86_pmu_start+0x78/0xb0 [ 55.611297] x86_pmu_enable+0x218/0x3a0 [ 55.611300] ? x86_pmu_enable+0x121/0x3a0 [ 55.611302] perf_pmu_enable+0x40/0x50 [ 55.611307] ctx_resched+0x19d/0x220 [ 55.611309] __perf_install_in_context+0x284/0x2f0 [ 55.611311] ? __pfx_remote_function+0x10/0x10 [ 55.611314] remote_function+0x52/0x70 [ 55.611317] ? __pfx_remote_function+0x10/0x10 [ 55.611319] generic_exec_single+0x84/0x150 [ 55.611323] smp_call_function_single+0xc5/0x1a0 [ 55.611326] ? __pfx_remote_function+0x10/0x10 [ 55.611329] perf_install_in_context+0xd1/0x1e0 [ 55.611331] ? __pfx___perf_install_in_context+0x10/0x10 [ 55.611333] __do_sys_perf_event_open+0xa76/0x1040 [ 55.611336] __x64_sys_perf_event_open+0x26/0x30 [ 55.611337] x64_sys_call+0x1d8e/0x20c0 [ 55.611339] do_syscall_64+0x4f/0x120 [ 55.611343] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e On PTL, GP counter 0 and 1 doesn't support auto counter reload feature, thus it would trigger a #GP when trying to write 1 on bit 0 of CFG_B MSR which requires to enable auto counter reload on GP counter 0. The root cause of causing this issue is the check for auto counter reload (ACR) counter mask from user space is incorrect in intel_pmu_acr_late_setup() helper. It leads to an invalid ACR counter mask from user space could be set into hw.config1 and then written into CFG_B MSRs and trigger the MSR access warning. e.g., User may create a perf event with ACR counter mask (config2=0xcb), and there is only 1 event created, so "cpuc->n_events" is 1. The correct check condition should be "i + idx >= cpuc->n_events" instead of "i + idx > cpuc->n_events" (it looks a typo). Otherwise, the counter mask would traverse twice and an invalid "cpuc->assign[1]" bit (bit 0) is set into hw.config1 and cause MSR accessing error. Besides, also check if the ACR counter mask corresponding events are ACR events. If not, filter out these counter mask. If a event is not a ACR event, it could be scheduled to an HW counter which doesn't support ACR. It's invalid to add their counter index in ACR counter mask. Furthermore, remove the WARN_ON_ONCE() since it's easily triggered as user could set any invalid ACR counter mask and the warning message could mislead users.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:14linux6.17.6-1DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux6.17.0-14.14UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-aws6.17.0-1007.7UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.176.17.0-1007.7~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-azure6.17.0-1008.8UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-azure-fdeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-gcp6.17.0-1007.7UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.176.17.0-1008.8~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.176.17.0-1008.8UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.176.17.0-1011.11UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-oracle6.17.0-1007.7UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.176.17.0-1007.7~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-raspi6.17.0-1008.8UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-realtime6.17.0-1006.7UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:25.10linux-riscv6.17.0-14.14.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-40122

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux ec980e4facef8110f6fce27e5b6344660117f01f – before c6cca4213b618c92e4972919ee568f0fb87313b1ec980e4facef8110f6fce27e5b6344660117f01f – before 43796f30507802d93ead2dc44fc9637f34671a89
Linux Linux 6.16

References