CVE-2025-38681

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/ptdump: take the memory hotplug lock inside ptdump_walk_pgd() Memory hot remove unmaps and tears down various kernel page table regions as required. The ptdump code can race with concurrent modifications of the kernel page tables. When leaf entries are modified concurrently, the dump code may log stale or inconsistent information for a VA range, but this is otherwise not harmful. But when intermediate levels of kernel page table are freed, the dump code will continue to use memory that has been freed and potentially reallocated for another purpose. In such cases, the ptdump code may dereference bogus addresses, leading to a number of potential problems. To avoid the above mentioned race condition, platforms such as arm64, riscv and s390 take memory hotplug lock, while dumping kernel page table via the sysfs interface /sys/kernel/debug/kernel_page_tables. Similar race condition exists while checking for pages that might have been marked W+X via /sys/kernel/debug/kernel_page_tables/check_wx_pages which in turn calls ptdump_check_wx(). Instead of solving this race condition again, let's just move the memory hotplug lock inside generic ptdump_check_wx() which will benefit both the scenarios. Drop get_online_mems() and put_online_mems() combination from all existing platform ptdump code paths.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2025-09-04
Last modified 2026-05-12
CVSS version 3.1
Patch available
Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

4.7

out of 10
Medium
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness type

CWE-362

CVE-2025-38681 is a Race Condition vulnerability

What is Race Condition?

The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, creating unexpected states. Learn more on MITRE CWE

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 5.7 and later are affected. Fixed in 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2, 6.17 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 5.7
Fixed in
✓ 5.10.241 5.10.x ✓ 5.15.190 5.15.x ✓ 6.1.149 6.1.x ✓ 6.6.103 6.6.x ✓ 6.12.43 6.12.x ✓ 6.15.11 6.15.x ✓ 6.16.2 6.16.x ✓ 6.17

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2025-38681 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

8 patch commits total View all on NVD

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2025-38681?

    CVE-2025-38681 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 4.7 out of 10 , classified as a Race Condition flaw (CWE-362) . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.7 onward and has been patched in 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149 and others. CVE-2025-38681 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38681?

    CVE-2025-38681 has a CVSS score of 4.7 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H .

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38681?

    Yes — CVE-2025-38681 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.7 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2025-38681 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2025-38681 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

  • What is Race Condition (CWE-362)?

    The product contains a code sequence that can run concurrently with other code, creating unexpected states. View CWE-362 on MITRE CWE →

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