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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-38225

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-07-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.1.143 / 6.6.95 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: media: imx-jpeg: Cleanup after an allocation error When allocation failures are not cleaned up by the driver, further allocation errors will be false-positives, which will cause buffers to remain uninitialized and cause NULL pointer dereferences. Ensure proper cleanup of failed allocations to prevent these issues.

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-908

Memory or a resource is used before it has been initialised, so its contents are whatever happened to be there — sometimes leaking earlier data, sometimes values an attacker can influence. Behaviour becomes unpredictable and occasionally exploitable. Remediation is initialising every resource before use and ensuring initialisation happens on all code paths.

General guidance for the use of uninitialized resource 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:>= 5.13, < 6.1.143>= 6.2, < 6.6.95>= 6.7, < 6.12.35>= 6.13, < 6.15.4
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 6.1.143 / 6.6.95 / 6.12.35 or later
Fixed in 6.1.1436.6.956.12.35
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 6.1.143+ / 6.6.95+ / 6.12.35+ / 6.15.4+ (depending on branch) or Debian 11 kernel update from backports

  1. 1. Identify the currently running kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. 2. Check which stable kernel branch is applicable to your system based on the version ranges: for 5.13-6.1.x upgrade to 6.1.143 or later; for 6.2-6.6.x upgrade to 6.6.95 or later; for 6.7-6.12.x upgrade to 6.12.35 or later; for 6.13-6.15.x upgrade to 6.15.4 or later
  3. 3. For Debian 11 (bullseye), check for available kernel updates via 'apt update && apt-cache policy linux-image-*' or consider using backports repository for newer kernel
  4. 4. Upgrade the kernel package using 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-image-<version>'
  5. 5. Reboot the system to load the patched kernel: 'sudo reboot'
  6. 6. Verify the fix is applied by running 'uname -r' to confirm the new kernel version and checking 'dmesg' for any media driver errors
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require reinstalling out-of-tree modules or cause compatibility issues with older user-space tools; ensure backup and test in non-production environment first

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-2025-38225 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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