Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-38276

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-07-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.15.3 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: fs/dax: Fix "don't skip locked entries when scanning entries" Commit 6be3e21d25ca ("fs/dax: don't skip locked entries when scanning entries") introduced a new function, wait_entry_unlocked_exclusive(), which waits for the current entry to become unlocked without advancing the XArray iterator state. Waiting for the entry to become unlocked requires dropping the XArray lock. This requires calling xas_pause() prior to dropping the lock which leaves the xas in a suitable state for the next iteration. However this has the side-effect of advancing the xas state to the next index. Normally this isn't an issue because xas_for_each() contains code to detect this state and thus avoid advancing the index a second time on the next loop iteration. However both callers of and wait_entry_unlocked_exclusive() itself subsequently use the xas state to reload the entry. As xas_pause() updated the state to the next index this will cause the current entry which is being waited on to be skipped. This caused the following warning to fire intermittently when running xftest generic/068 on an XFS filesystem with FS DAX enabled: [ 35.067397] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 35.068229] WARNING: CPU: 21 PID: 1640 at mm/truncate.c:89 truncate_folio_batch_exceptionals+0xd8/0x1e0 [ 35.069717] Modules linked in: nd_pmem dax_pmem nd_btt nd_e820 libnvdimm [ 35.071006] CPU: 21 UID: 0 PID: 1640 Comm: fstest Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7+ #77 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 35.072613] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/204 [ 35.074845] RIP: 0010:truncate_folio_batch_exceptionals+0xd8/0x1e0 [ 35.075962] Code: a1 00 00 00 f6 47 0d 20 0f 84 97 00 00 00 4c 63 e8 41 39 c4 7f 0b eb 61 49 83 c5 01 45 39 ec 7e 58 42 f68 [ 35.079522] RSP: 0018:ffffb04e426c7850 EFLAGS: 00010202 [ 35.080359] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff9d21e3481908 RCX: ffffb04e426c77f4 [ 35.081477] RDX: ffffb04e426c79e8 RSI: ffffb04e426c79e0 RDI: ffff9d21e34816e8 [ 35.082590] RBP: ffffb04e426c79e0 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000003 [ 35.083733] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 822b53c0f7a49868 R12: 000000000000001f [ 35.084850] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffffb04e426c78e8 R15: fffffffffffffffe [ 35.085953] FS: 00007f9134c87740(0000) GS:ffff9d22abba0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 35.087346] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 35.088244] CR2: 00007f9134c86000 CR3: 000000040afff000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 [ 35.089354] Call Trace: [ 35.089749] <TASK> [ 35.090168] truncate_inode_pages_range+0xfc/0x4d0 [ 35.091078] truncate_pagecache+0x47/0x60 [ 35.091735] xfs_setattr_size+0xc7/0x3e0 [ 35.092648] xfs_vn_setattr+0x1ea/0x270 [ 35.093437] notify_change+0x1f4/0x510 [ 35.094219] ? do_truncate+0x97/0xe0 [ 35.094879] do_truncate+0x97/0xe0 [ 35.095640] path_openat+0xabd/0xca0 [ 35.096278] do_filp_open+0xd7/0x190 [ 35.096860] do_sys_openat2+0x8a/0xe0 [ 35.097459] __x64_sys_openat+0x6d/0xa0 [ 35.098076] do_syscall_64+0xbb/0x1d0 [ 35.098647] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f [ 35.099444] RIP: 0033:0x7f9134d81fc1 [ 35.100033] Code: 75 57 89 f0 25 00 00 41 00 3d 00 00 41 00 74 49 80 3d 2a 26 0e 00 00 74 6d 89 da 48 89 ee bf 9c ff ff ff5 [ 35.102993] RSP: 002b:00007ffcd41e0d10 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000101 [ 35.104263] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000242 RCX: 00007f9134d81fc1 [ 35.105452] RDX: 0000000000000242 RSI: 00007ffcd41e1200 RDI: 00000000ffffff9c [ 35.106663] RBP: 00007ffcd41e1200 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000064 [ 35.107923] R10: 00000000000001a4 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000066 [ 35.109112] R13: 0000000000100000 R14: 0000000000100000 R15: 0000000000000400 [ 35.110357] </TASK> [ 35.110769] irq event stamp: 8415587 [ 35.111486] hardirqs last enabled at (8415599): [<ffffffff8d74b562>] __up_console_se ---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-667

Shared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.

General guidance for the improper locking 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:>= 6.15, < 6.15.3

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 6.15.3 or later
Fixed in 6.15.3
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 6.15.3 or later

  1. 1. Check current kernel version: uname -r
  2. 2. Upgrade Linux kernel to version 6.15.3 or later using your distribution's package manager or kernel upgrade procedure
  3. 3. Reboot the system to boot into the fixed kernel version
  4. 4. Verify the new kernel is running: uname -r (should show >= 6.15.3)

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

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-38276 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2025-38276 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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