What is CVE-2025-38051?

CVE-2025-38051 is a High severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.0 out of 10, classified as a Use After Free flaw (CWE-416), affecting Linux kernel versions from 2.6.27.4 onward and patched in 5.4.294, 5.10.238, 5.15.185 and others. CVE-2025-38051 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38051?

CVE-2025-38051 has a CVSS score of 7.0 out of 10, rated High severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38051?

Yes, CVE-2025-38051 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.4.294, 5.10.238, 5.15.185 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.27.4 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2025-38051 actively exploited?

CVE-2025-38051 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is Use After Free (CWE-416)?

The product references memory after it has been freed, which may cause it to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. See MITRE CWE for full details: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/416.html

CVE-2025-38051

High

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: Fix use-after-free in cifs_fill_dirent There is a race condition in the readdir concurrency process, which may access the rsp buffer after it has been released, triggering the following KASAN warning. ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in cifs_fill_dirent+0xb03/0xb60 [cifs] Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880099b819c by task a.out/342975 CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 342975 Comm: a.out Not tainted 6.15.0-rc6+ #240 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70 print_report+0xce/0x640 kasan_report+0xb8/0xf0 cifs_fill_dirent+0xb03/0xb60 [cifs] cifs_readdir+0x12cb/0x3190 [cifs] iterate_dir+0x1a1/0x520 __x64_sys_getdents+0x134/0x220 do_syscall_64+0x4b/0x110 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f996f64b9f9 Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 0d f7 c3 0c 00 f7 d8 64 89 8 RSP: 002b:00007f996f53de78 EFLAGS: 00000207 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000004e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f996f53ecdc RCX: 00007f996f64b9f9 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007f996f53dea0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000207 R12: ffffffffffffff88 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 00007ffc8cd9a500 R15: 00007f996f51e000 </TASK> Allocated by task 408: kasan_save_stack+0x20/0x40 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_slab_alloc+0x6e/0x70 kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x117/0x3d0 mempool_alloc_noprof+0xf2/0x2c0 cifs_buf_get+0x36/0x80 [cifs] allocate_buffers+0x1d2/0x330 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x22b/0x2690 [cifs] kthread+0x394/0x720 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x70 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Freed by task 342979: kasan_save_stack+0x20/0x40 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 __kasan_slab_free+0x37/0x50 kmem_cache_free+0x2b8/0x500 cifs_buf_release+0x3c/0x70 [cifs] cifs_readdir+0x1c97/0x3190 [cifs] iterate_dir+0x1a1/0x520 __x64_sys_getdents64+0x134/0x220 do_syscall_64+0x4b/0x110 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8880099b8000 which belongs to the cache cifs_request of size 16588 The buggy address is located 412 bytes inside of freed 16588-byte region [ffff8880099b8000, ffff8880099bc0cc) The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x99b8 head: order:3 mapcount:0 entire_mapcount:0 nr_pages_mapped:0 pincount:0 anon flags: 0x80000000000040(head|node=0|zone=1) page_type: f5(slab) raw: 0080000000000040 ffff888001e03400 0000000000000000 dead000000000001 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000010001 00000000f5000000 0000000000000000 head: 0080000000000040 ffff888001e03400 0000000000000000 dead000000000001 head: 0000000000000000 0000000000010001 00000000f5000000 0000000000000000 head: 0080000000000003 ffffea0000266e01 00000000ffffffff 00000000ffffffff head: ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000008 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: ffff8880099b8080: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff8880099b8100: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb >ffff8880099b8180: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ^ ffff8880099b8200: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ffff8880099b8280: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb ================================================================== POC is available in the link [1]. The problem triggering process is as follows: Process 1 Process 2 ----------------------------------- ---truncated---

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-06-18

Last modified 2026-01-12

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

7.0

out of 10

High

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

High

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness type

CWE-416

CVE-2025-38051 is a Use After Free vulnerability

What is Use After Free?

The product references memory after it has been freed, which may cause it to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Learn more on MITRE CWE

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 2.6.27.4, 2.6.28 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.4.294, 5.10.238, 5.15.185, 6.1.141, 6.6.93, 6.12.31, 6.14.9, 6.15 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 2.6.27.4 ≥ 2.6.28

Fixed in

✓ 5.4.294 5.4.x ✓ 5.10.238 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.185 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.141 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.93 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.31 6.12.x ✓ 6.14.9 6.14.x ✓ 6.15

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2025-38051 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Debian Security
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html

Third Party Advisory
Debian Security
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html

Third Party Advisory
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b197931fbc821bc7e9e91bf619400db563e3338
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/73cadde98f67f76c5eba00ac0b72c453383cec8b
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9bea368648ac46f8593a780760362e40291d22a9
Patch

8 patch commits total View all on NVD

Details

CVE ID CVE-2025-38051

Severity High

CVSS score 7.0 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2025-06-18

Modified 2026-01-12

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38051?

CVE-2025-38051 is a High severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.0 out of 10 , classified as an Use After Free flaw (CWE-416) . It affects Linux kernel versions from 2.6.27.4 onward and has been patched in 5.4.294, 5.10.238, 5.15.185 and others. CVE-2025-38051 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38051?

CVE-2025-38051 has a CVSS score of 7.0 out of 10, rated High severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38051?

Yes — CVE-2025-38051 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.4.294, 5.10.238, 5.15.185 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 2.6.27.4 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2025-38051 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2025-38051 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
What is Use After Free (CWE-416)?

The product references memory after it has been freed, which may cause it to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. View CWE-416 on MITRE CWE →