CVE-2025-38517

Published Aug 16, 2025

Last updated 5 months ago

CVSS medium 5.5

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lib/alloc_tag: do not acquire non-existent lock in alloc_tag_top_users() alloc_tag_top_users() attempts to lock alloc_tag_cttype->mod_lock even when the alloc_tag_cttype is not allocated because: 1) alloc tagging is disabled because mem profiling is disabled (!alloc_tag_cttype) 2) alloc tagging is enabled, but not yet initialized (!alloc_tag_cttype) 3) alloc tagging is enabled, but failed initialization (!alloc_tag_cttype or IS_ERR(alloc_tag_cttype)) In all cases, alloc_tag_cttype is not allocated, and therefore alloc_tag_top_users() should not attempt to acquire the semaphore. This leads to a crash on memory allocation failure by attempting to acquire a non-existent semaphore: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc000000001b: 0000 [#3] SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000000d8-0x00000000000000df] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Tainted: G D 6.16.0-rc2 #1 VOLUNTARY Tainted: [D]=DIE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:down_read_trylock+0xaa/0x3b0 Code: d0 7c 08 84 d2 0f 85 a0 02 00 00 8b 0d df 31 dd 04 85 c9 75 29 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 48 8d 6b 68 48 89 ea 48 c1 ea 03 <80> 3c 02 00 0f 85 88 02 00 00 48 3b 5b 68 0f 85 53 01 00 00 65 ff RSP: 0000:ffff8881002ce9b8 EFLAGS: 00010016 RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000000070 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 000000000000001b RSI: 000000000000000a RDI: 0000000000000070 RBP: 00000000000000d8 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: ffffed107dde49d1 R10: ffff8883eef24e8b R11: ffff8881002cec20 R12: 1ffff11020059d37 R13: 00000000003fff7b R14: ffff8881002cec20 R15: dffffc0000000000 FS: 00007f963f21d940(0000) GS:ffff888458ca6000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f963f5edf71 CR3: 000000010672c000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> codetag_trylock_module_list+0xd/0x20 alloc_tag_top_users+0x369/0x4b0 __show_mem+0x1cd/0x6e0 warn_alloc+0x2b1/0x390 __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x12b9/0x21a0 alloc_pages_mpol+0x135/0x3e0 alloc_slab_page+0x82/0xe0 new_slab+0x212/0x240 ___slab_alloc+0x82a/0xe00 </TASK> As David Wang points out, this issue became easier to trigger after commit 780138b12381 ("alloc_tag: check mem_profiling_support in alloc_tag_init"). Before the commit, the issue occurred only when it failed to allocate and initialize alloc_tag_cttype or if a memory allocation fails before alloc_tag_init() is called. After the commit, it can be easily triggered when memory profiling is compiled but disabled at boot. To properly determine whether alloc_tag_init() has been called and its data structures initialized, verify that alloc_tag_cttype is a valid pointer before acquiring the semaphore. If the variable is NULL or an error value, it has not been properly initialized. In such a case, just skip and do not attempt to acquire the semaphore. [harry.yoo@oracle.com: v3]
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
5.5
Impact score
3.6
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Severity
MEDIUM

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-476

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

  1. 🔴 #Linux Kernel, NULL Pointer Dereference, #CVE-2025-38517 (Critical) https://t.co/sbl8H6QcQJ

    @dailycve

    19 Nov 2025

    15 Impressions

    0 Retweets

    0 Likes

    0 Bookmarks

    0 Replies

    0 Quotes

  2. CVE-2025-38517 Linux Kernel Memory Profiling Vulnerability https://t.co/0STBAj76zd

    @VulmonFeeds

    16 Aug 2025

    1 Impression

    0 Retweets

    0 Likes

    0 Bookmarks

    0 Replies

    0 Quotes

  3. CVE-2025-38517 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lib/alloc_tag: do not acquire non-existent lock in alloc_tag_top_users() alloc_tag_top_users() a… https://t.co/xPwQRAlFol

    @CVEnew

    16 Aug 2025

    341 Impressions

    0 Retweets

    1 Like

    0 Bookmarks

    0 Replies

    0 Quotes

Configurations

Related CVEs

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: usb: cdc_ncm: add ndpoffset to NDP32 nframes bounds check The same bounds-check bug fixed for NDP16 in the previous patch also exists in cdc_ncm_rx_verify_ndp32(). The DPE array size is validated against the total skb length without accounting for ndpoffset, allowing out-of-bounds reads when the NDP32 is placed near the end of the NTB. Add ndpoffset to the nframes bounds check and use struct_size_t() to express the NDP-plus-DPE-array size more clearly. Compile-tested only.•CVE-2026-23447
  2. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: usb: aqc111: Do not perform PM inside suspend callback syzbot reports "task hung in rpm_resume" This is caused by aqc111_suspend calling the PM variant of its write_cmd routine. The simplified call trace looks like this: rpm_suspend() usb_suspend_both() - here udev->dev.power.runtime_status == RPM_SUSPENDING aqc111_suspend() - called for the usb device interface aqc111_write32_cmd() usb_autopm_get_interface() pm_runtime_resume_and_get() rpm_resume() - here we call rpm_resume() on our parent rpm_resume() - Here we wait for a status change that will never happen. At this point we block another task which holds rtnl_lock and locks up the whole networking stack. Fix this by replacing the write_cmd calls with their _nopm variants•CVE-2026-23446
  3. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: igc: fix page fault in XDP TX timestamps handling If an XDP application that requested TX timestamping is shutting down while the link of the interface in use is still up the following kernel splat is reported: [ 883.803618] [ T1554] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffcfb6200fd008 ... [ 883.803650] [ T1554] Call Trace: [ 883.803652] [ T1554] <TASK> [ 883.803654] [ T1554] igc_ptp_tx_tstamp_event+0xdf/0x160 [igc] [ 883.803660] [ T1554] igc_tsync_interrupt+0x2d5/0x300 [igc] ... During shutdown of the TX ring the xsk_meta pointers are left behind, so that the IRQ handler is trying to touch them. This issue is now being fixed by cleaning up the stale xsk meta data on TX shutdown. TX timestamps on other queues remain unaffected.•CVE-2026-23445
  4. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() has three error paths, but only two of them free the skb. The first error path (ieee80211_tx_prepare() returning TX_DROP) does not free it, while invoke_tx_handlers() failure and the fragmentation check both do. Add kfree_skb() to the first error path so all three are consistent, and remove the now-redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76, mac80211_hwsim) to avoid double-free. Document the skb ownership guarantee in the function's kdoc.•CVE-2026-23444
  5. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ACPI: processor: Fix previous acpi_processor_errata_piix4() fix After commi f132e089fe89 ("ACPI: processor: Fix NULL-pointer dereference in acpi_processor_errata_piix4()"), device pointers may be dereferenced after dropping references to the device objects pointed to by them, which may cause a use-after-free to occur. Moreover, debug messages about enabling the errata may be printed if the errata flags corresponding to them are unset. Address all of these issues by moving message printing to the points in the code where the errata flags are set.•CVE-2026-23443

References

Sources include official advisories and independent security research.