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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-38223

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-07-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.12.35 / 6.15.4 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: ceph: avoid kernel BUG for encrypted inode with unaligned file size The generic/397 test hits a BUG_ON for the case of encrypted inode with unaligned file size (for example, 33K or 1K): [ 877.737811] run fstests generic/397 at 2025-01-03 12:34:40 [ 877.875761] libceph: mon0 (2)127.0.0.1:40674 session established [ 877.876130] libceph: client4614 fsid 19b90bca-f1ae-47a6-93dd-0b03ee637949 [ 877.991965] libceph: mon0 (2)127.0.0.1:40674 session established [ 877.992334] libceph: client4617 fsid 19b90bca-f1ae-47a6-93dd-0b03ee637949 [ 878.017234] libceph: mon0 (2)127.0.0.1:40674 session established [ 878.017594] libceph: client4620 fsid 19b90bca-f1ae-47a6-93dd-0b03ee637949 [ 878.031394] xfs_io (pid 18988) is setting deprecated v1 encryption policy; recommend upgrading to v2. [ 878.054528] libceph: mon0 (2)127.0.0.1:40674 session established [ 878.054892] libceph: client4623 fsid 19b90bca-f1ae-47a6-93dd-0b03ee637949 [ 878.070287] libceph: mon0 (2)127.0.0.1:40674 session established [ 878.070704] libceph: client4626 fsid 19b90bca-f1ae-47a6-93dd-0b03ee637949 [ 878.264586] libceph: mon0 (2)127.0.0.1:40674 session established [ 878.265258] libceph: client4629 fsid 19b90bca-f1ae-47a6-93dd-0b03ee637949 [ 878.374578] -----------[ cut here ]------------ [ 878.374586] kernel BUG at net/ceph/messenger.c:1070! [ 878.375150] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 878.378145] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 4759 Comm: kworker/2:9 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc5+ #1 [ 878.378969] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 878.380167] Workqueue: ceph-msgr ceph_con_workfn [ 878.381639] RIP: 0010:ceph_msg_data_cursor_init+0x42/0x50 [ 878.382152] Code: 89 17 48 8b 46 70 55 48 89 47 08 c7 47 18 00 00 00 00 48 89 e5 e8 de cc ff ff 5d 31 c0 31 d2 31 f6 31 ff c3 cc cc cc cc 0f 0b <0f> 0b 0f 0b 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 [ 878.383928] RSP: 0018:ffffb4ffc7cbbd28 EFLAGS: 00010287 [ 878.384447] RAX: ffffffff82bb9ac0 RBX: ffff981390c2f1f8 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 878.385129] RDX: 0000000000009000 RSI: ffff981288232b58 RDI: ffff981390c2f378 [ 878.385839] RBP: ffffb4ffc7cbbe18 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 878.386539] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff981390c2f030 [ 878.387203] R13: ffff981288232b58 R14: 0000000000000029 R15: 0000000000000001 [ 878.387877] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9814b7900000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 878.388663] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 878.389212] CR2: 00005e106a0554e0 CR3: 0000000112bf0001 CR4: 0000000000772ef0 [ 878.389921] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 878.390620] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 878.391307] PKRU: 55555554 [ 878.391567] Call Trace: [ 878.391807] <TASK> [ 878.392021] ? show_regs+0x71/0x90 [ 878.392391] ? die+0x38/0xa0 [ 878.392667] ? do_trap+0xdb/0x100 [ 878.392981] ? do_error_trap+0x75/0xb0 [ 878.393372] ? ceph_msg_data_cursor_init+0x42/0x50 [ 878.393842] ? exc_invalid_op+0x53/0x80 [ 878.394232] ? ceph_msg_data_cursor_init+0x42/0x50 [ 878.394694] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1b/0x20 [ 878.395099] ? ceph_msg_data_cursor_init+0x42/0x50 [ 878.395583] ? ceph_con_v2_try_read+0xd16/0x2220 [ 878.396027] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x40 [ 878.396428] ? raw_spin_rq_unlock+0x10/0x40 [ 878.396842] ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0x97/0x310 [ 878.397338] ? __schedule+0x44b/0x16b0 [ 878.397738] ceph_con_workfn+0x326/0x750 [ 878.398121] process_one_work+0x188/0x3d0 [ 878.398522] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 878.398929] worker_thread+0x2b5/0x3c0 [ 878.399310] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 878.399727] kthread+0xe1/0x120 [ 878.400031] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 878.400431] ret_from_fork+0x43/0x70 [ 878.400771] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 878.401127] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 878.401543] </TASK> [ 878.401760] Modules l ---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-617

Attacker-controllable input can reach an assertion that aborts the process when it fails, so a check meant for debugging becomes a denial-of-service in production. A single crafted request takes the service down. The fix is to handle unexpected input gracefully on reachable paths rather than asserting on it.

General guidance for the reachable assertion 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:>= 6.12, < 6.12.35>= 6.13, < 6.15.4

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 6.12.35 / 6.15.4 or later
Fixed in 6.12.356.15.4
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

6.12.35+ or 6.15.4+ (depending on which major version branch you are on)

  1. Identify your current kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. For kernels in the 6.12.x series, upgrade to version 6.12.35 or later
  3. For kernels in the 6.13.x or 6.14.x series, upgrade to version 6.15.4 or later
  4. After upgrade, reboot the system to load the new kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking `uname -r` matches the target 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 $1,600. 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-2025-38223 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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