What is CVE-2025-38690?

CVE-2025-38690 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, affecting Linux kernel versions from 6.16 onward and patched in 6.16.2 and 6.17. CVE-2025-38690 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38690?

CVE-2025-38690 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity. The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38690?

Yes, CVE-2025-38690 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.16.2 and 6.17. If you are running Linux kernel 6.16 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

Is CVE-2025-38690 actively exploited?

CVE-2025-38690 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

CVE-2025-38690

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe/migrate: prevent infinite recursion If the buf + offset is not aligned to XE_CAHELINE_BYTES we fallback to using a bounce buffer. However the bounce buffer here is allocated on the stack, and the only alignment requirement here is that it's naturally aligned to u8, and not XE_CACHELINE_BYTES. If the bounce buffer is also misaligned we then recurse back into the function again, however the new bounce buffer might also not be aligned, and might never be until we eventually blow through the stack, as we keep recursing. Instead of using the stack use kmalloc, which should respect the power-of-two alignment request here. Fixes a kernel panic when triggering this path through eudebug. v2 (Stuart): - Add build bug check for power-of-two restriction - s/EINVAL/ENOMEM/ (cherry picked from commit 38b34e928a08ba594c4bbf7118aa3aadacd62fff)

Package Linux Kernel

Published 2025-09-04

Last modified 2025-11-24

CVSS version 3.1

Patch available

Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10

Medium

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Vector string

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

Weakness type

CWE-617

CVE-2025-38690 is classified as CWE-617

See CWE-617 on MITRE CWE for full details on this weakness type.

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 6.16 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.16.2, 6.17 and their respective stable series.

Affected from

≥ 6.16

Fixed in

✓ 6.16.2 6.16.x ✓ 6.17

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2025-38690 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/89f511c024879c5812cc0c010a6663b5e49950f3
Patch
Kernel patch commit
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9d7a1cbebbb691891671def57407ba2f8ee914e8
Patch

Details

CVE ID CVE-2025-38690

Severity Medium

CVSS score 5.5 / 10

CVSS version 3.1

Published 2025-09-04

Modified 2025-11-24

KEV No

Patch

Yes

Package linux

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38690?

CVE-2025-38690 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.16 onward and has been patched in 6.16.2 and 6.17. CVE-2025-38690 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-38690?

CVE-2025-38690 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-38690?

Yes — CVE-2025-38690 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.16.2 and 6.17. If you are running Linux kernel 6.16 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
Is CVE-2025-38690 actively exploited?

No — CVE-2025-38690 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.