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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2025-38051

HIGH · 7.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.4.294 / 5.10.238 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
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: 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---

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-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free 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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 11.0
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 2.6.27.4, < 5.4.294>= 5.5, < 5.10.238>= 5.11, < 5.15.185>= 5.16, < 6.1.141>= 6.2, < 6.6.93>= 6.7, < 6.12.31>= 6.13, < 6.14.9= 6.15

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
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 5.4.294 / 5.10.238 / 5.15.185 or later
Fixed in 5.4.2945.10.2385.15.185
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 6.1.141 or later (or branch-specific: 5.4.294+, 5.10.238+, 5.15.185+)

  1. 1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. 2. Check if the running kernel version falls within the affected range: >= 2.6.27.4 and < 5.4.294; >= 5.5 and < 5.10.238; >= 5.11 and < 5.15.185; >= 5.16 and < 6.1.141
  3. 3. If affected, upgrade the Linux kernel to version 6.1.141 or later (or the equivalent stable patch for your kernel branch: 5.4.294+, 5.10.238+, 5.15.185+)
  4. 4. For Debian 11.0 systems, apply the Debian kernel security update that includes this fix
  5. 5. Reboot the system to load the patched kernel
  6. 6. Verify the fix is applied by checking `uname -r` shows a version >= 6.1.141 (or the appropriate fixed version for your branch)
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require rebuilding out-of-tree kernel modules; ensure CIFS/SMB client modules are compatible with the new kernel version

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 $3,200. 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

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-38051 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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