What is CVE-2025-38221?

CVE-2025-38221 is a High severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.1 out of 10, classified as a Out-of-bounds Read flaw (CWE-125), affecting Linux kernel versions from 6.15 onward and patched in 6.15.4 and 6.16. CVE-2025-38221 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38221?

CVE-2025-38221 has a CVSS score of 7.1 out of 10, rated High severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38221?

Yes, CVE-2025-38221 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.15.4 and 6.16. If you are running Linux kernel 6.15 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2025-38221 actively exploited?

CVE-2025-38221 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125)?

The product reads data past the end or before the beginning of the intended buffer. See MITRE CWE for full details: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/125.html

CVE-2025-38221

High

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix out of bounds punch offset Punching a hole with a start offset that exceeds max_end is not permitted and will result in a negative length in the truncate_inode_partial_folio() function while truncating the page cache, potentially leading to undesirable consequences. A simple reproducer: truncate -s 9895604649994 /mnt/foo xfs_io -c "pwrite 8796093022208 4096" /mnt/foo xfs_io -c "fpunch 8796093022213 25769803777" /mnt/foo kernel BUG at include/linux/highmem.h:275! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 710 Comm: xfs_io Not tainted 6.15.0-rc3 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-2.fc40 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:zero_user_segments.constprop.0+0xd7/0x110 RSP: 0018:ffffc90001cf3b38 EFLAGS: 00010287 RAX: 0000000000000005 RBX: ffffea0001485e40 RCX: 0000000000001000 RDX: 000000000040b000 RSI: 0000000000000005 RDI: 000000000040b000 RBP: 000000000040affb R08: ffff888000000000 R09: ffffea0000000000 R10: 0000000000000003 R11: 00000000fffc7fc5 R12: 0000000000000005 R13: 000000000040affb R14: ffffea0001485e40 R15: ffff888031cd3000 FS: 00007f4f63d0b780(0000) GS:ffff8880d337d000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 000000001ae0b038 CR3: 00000000536aa000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> truncate_inode_partial_folio+0x3dd/0x620 truncate_inode_pages_range+0x226/0x720 ? bdev_getblk+0x52/0x3e0 ? ext4_get_group_desc+0x78/0x150 ? crc32c_arch+0xfd/0x180 ? __ext4_get_inode_loc+0x18c/0x840 ? ext4_inode_csum+0x117/0x160 ? jbd2_journal_dirty_metadata+0x61/0x390 ? __ext4_handle_dirty_metadata+0xa0/0x2b0 ? kmem_cache_free+0x90/0x5a0 ? jbd2_journal_stop+0x1d5/0x550 ? __ext4_journal_stop+0x49/0x100 truncate_pagecache_range+0x50/0x80 ext4_truncate_page_cache_block_range+0x57/0x3a0 ext4_punch_hole+0x1fe/0x670 ext4_fallocate+0x792/0x17d0 ? __count_memcg_events+0x175/0x2a0 vfs_fallocate+0x121/0x560 ksys_fallocate+0x51/0xc0 __x64_sys_fallocate+0x24/0x40 x64_sys_call+0x18d2/0x4170 do_syscall_64+0xa7/0x220 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Fix this by filtering out cases where the punching start offset exceeds max_end.

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-07-04

Last modified 2025-11-18

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

7.1

out of 10

High

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

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

Weakness type

CWE-125

CVE-2025-38221 is a Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability

What is Out-of-bounds Read?

The product reads data past the end or before the beginning of the intended buffer. Learn more on MITRE CWE

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 6.15 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.15.4, 6.16 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 6.15

Fixed in

✓ 6.15.4 6.15.x ✓ 6.16

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2025-38221 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/28b62cb58fd014338f5004170f2e3a35bf0af238
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a4d60ba277ecd8a98c5a593cbc0ef2237c20a541
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b5e58bcd79625423487fa3ecba8e8411b5396327
Patch

Details

CVE ID CVE-2025-38221

Severity High

CVSS score 7.1 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2025-07-04

Modified 2025-11-18

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38221?

CVE-2025-38221 is a High severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 7.1 out of 10 , classified as an Out-of-bounds Read flaw (CWE-125) . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.15 onward and has been patched in 6.15.4 and 6.16. CVE-2025-38221 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38221?

CVE-2025-38221 has a CVSS score of 7.1 out of 10, rated High severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38221?

Yes — CVE-2025-38221 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.15.4 and 6.16. If you are running Linux kernel 6.15 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2025-38221 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2025-38221 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.
What is Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125)?

The product reads data past the end or before the beginning of the intended buffer. View CWE-125 on MITRE CWE →