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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-37781

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.4.293 / 5.10.237 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: i2c: cros-ec-tunnel: defer probe if parent EC is not present When i2c-cros-ec-tunnel and the EC driver are built-in, the EC parent device will not be found, leading to NULL pointer dereference. That can also be reproduced by unbinding the controller driver and then loading i2c-cros-ec-tunnel module (or binding the device). [ 271.991245] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000058 [ 271.998215] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 272.003351] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 272.008485] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 272.011022] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 272.015207] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 3859 Comm: insmod Tainted: G S 6.15.0-rc1-00004-g44722359ed83 #30 PREEMPT(full) 3c7fb39a552e7d949de2ad921a7d6588d3a4fdc5 [ 272.030312] Tainted: [S]=CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC [ 272.034233] Hardware name: HP Berknip/Berknip, BIOS Google_Berknip.13434.356.0 05/17/2021 [ 272.042400] RIP: 0010:ec_i2c_probe+0x2b/0x1c0 [i2c_cros_ec_tunnel] [ 272.048577] Code: 1f 44 00 00 41 57 41 56 41 55 41 54 53 48 83 ec 10 65 48 8b 05 06 a0 6c e7 48 89 44 24 08 4c 8d 7f 10 48 8b 47 50 4c 8b 60 78 <49> 83 7c 24 58 00 0f 84 2f 01 00 00 48 89 fb be 30 06 00 00 4c 9 [ 272.067317] RSP: 0018:ffffa32082a03940 EFLAGS: 00010282 [ 272.072541] RAX: ffff969580b6a810 RBX: ffff969580b68c10 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 272.079672] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000282 RDI: ffff969580b68c00 [ 272.086804] RBP: 00000000fffffdfb R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 272.093936] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffffffffc0600000 R12: 0000000000000000 [ 272.101067] R13: ffffffffa666fbb8 R14: ffffffffc05b5528 R15: ffff969580b68c10 [ 272.108198] FS: 00007b930906fc40(0000) GS:ffff969603149000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 272.116282] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 272.122024] CR2: 0000000000000058 CR3: 000000012631c000 CR4: 00000000003506f0 [ 272.129155] Call Trace: [ 272.131606] <TASK> [ 272.133709] ? acpi_dev_pm_attach+0xdd/0x110 [ 272.137985] platform_probe+0x69/0xa0 [ 272.141652] really_probe+0x152/0x310 [ 272.145318] __driver_probe_device+0x77/0x110 [ 272.149678] driver_probe_device+0x1e/0x190 [ 272.153864] __driver_attach+0x10b/0x1e0 [ 272.157790] ? driver_attach+0x20/0x20 [ 272.161542] bus_for_each_dev+0x107/0x150 [ 272.165553] bus_add_driver+0x15d/0x270 [ 272.169392] driver_register+0x65/0x110 [ 272.173232] ? cleanup_module+0xa80/0xa80 [i2c_cros_ec_tunnel 3a00532f3f4af4a9eade753f86b0f8dd4e4e5698] [ 272.182617] do_one_initcall+0x110/0x350 [ 272.186543] ? security_kernfs_init_security+0x49/0xd0 [ 272.191682] ? __kernfs_new_node+0x1b9/0x240 [ 272.195954] ? security_kernfs_init_security+0x49/0xd0 [ 272.201093] ? __kernfs_new_node+0x1b9/0x240 [ 272.205365] ? kernfs_link_sibling+0x105/0x130 [ 272.209810] ? kernfs_next_descendant_post+0x1c/0xa0 [ 272.214773] ? kernfs_activate+0x57/0x70 [ 272.218699] ? kernfs_add_one+0x118/0x160 [ 272.222710] ? __kernfs_create_file+0x71/0xa0 [ 272.227069] ? sysfs_add_bin_file_mode_ns+0xd6/0x110 [ 272.232033] ? internal_create_group+0x453/0x4a0 [ 272.236651] ? __vunmap_range_noflush+0x214/0x2d0 [ 272.241355] ? __free_frozen_pages+0x1dc/0x420 [ 272.245799] ? free_vmap_area_noflush+0x10a/0x1c0 [ 272.250505] ? load_module+0x1509/0x16f0 [ 272.254431] do_init_module+0x60/0x230 [ 272.258181] __se_sys_finit_module+0x27a/0x370 [ 272.262627] do_syscall_64+0x6a/0xf0 [ 272.266206] ? do_syscall_64+0x76/0xf0 [ 272.269956] ? irqentry_exit_to_user_mode+0x79/0x90 [ 272.274836] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x55/0x5d [ 272.279887] RIP: 0033:0x7b9309168d39 [ 272.283466] Code: 5b 41 5c 5d c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 66 90 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 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d af 40 0c 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 8 [ 272.302210] RSP: 002b:00007fff50f1a288 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000 ---truncated---

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-476

The code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.

General guidance for the null pointer dereference class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 3.16, < 5.4.293>= 5.5, < 5.10.237>= 5.11, < 5.15.181>= 5.16, < 6.1.135>= 6.2, < 6.6.88>= 6.7, < 6.12.25>= 6.13, < 6.14.4= 6.15
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 11.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.4.293 / 5.10.237 / 5.15.181 or later
Fixed in 5.4.2935.10.2375.15.181
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel >= 6.1.135 (or nearest fixed version in your current branch: >= 5.4.293, >= 5.10.237, >= 5.15.181)

  1. Check current kernel version with `uname -r`
  2. Identify which kernel branch is currently in use (e.g., 5.10.x, 5.15.x, 6.1.x)
  3. Upgrade the Linux kernel to a version >= 6.1.135 (or >= 5.15.181 if staying on 5.15 branch, >= 5.10.237 if staying on 5.10 branch, >= 5.4.293 if staying on 5.4 branch)
  4. Reboot the system to load the new kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and that the i2c-cros-ec-tunnel driver loads correctly without NULL pointer dereference errors
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require matching kernel modules and could affect proprietary drivers; ensure compatibility with userspace tools

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $2,850. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-37781 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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