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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-38455

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-07-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.1.146 / 6.6.99 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: KVM: SVM: Reject SEV{-ES} intra host migration if vCPU creation is in-flight Reject migration of SEV{-ES} state if either the source or destination VM is actively creating a vCPU, i.e. if kvm_vm_ioctl_create_vcpu() is in the section between incrementing created_vcpus and online_vcpus. The bulk of vCPU creation runs _outside_ of kvm->lock to allow creating multiple vCPUs in parallel, and so sev_info.es_active can get toggled from false=>true in the destination VM after (or during) svm_vcpu_create(), resulting in an SEV{-ES} VM effectively having a non-SEV{-ES} vCPU. The issue manifests most visibly as a crash when trying to free a vCPU's NULL VMSA page in an SEV-ES VM, but any number of things can go wrong. BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffebde00000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 227 UID: 0 PID: 64063 Comm: syz.5.60023 Tainted: G U O 6.15.0-smp-DEV #2 NONE Tainted: [U]=USER, [O]=OOT_MODULE Hardware name: Google, Inc. Arcadia_IT_80/Arcadia_IT_80, BIOS 12.52.0-0 10/28/2024 RIP: 0010:constant_test_bit arch/x86/include/asm/bitops.h:206 [inline] RIP: 0010:arch_test_bit arch/x86/include/asm/bitops.h:238 [inline] RIP: 0010:_test_bit include/asm-generic/bitops/instrumented-non-atomic.h:142 [inline] RIP: 0010:PageHead include/linux/page-flags.h:866 [inline] RIP: 0010:___free_pages+0x3e/0x120 mm/page_alloc.c:5067 Code: <49> f7 06 40 00 00 00 75 05 45 31 ff eb 0c 66 90 4c 89 f0 4c 39 f0 RSP: 0018:ffff8984551978d0 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000777f80000001 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffff918aeb98 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffffebde00000000 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffebde00000007 R09: 1ffffd7bc0000000 R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffff97bc0000001 R12: dffffc0000000000 R13: ffff8983e19751a8 R14: ffffebde00000000 R15: 1ffffd7bc0000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff89ee661d3000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffebde00000000 CR3: 000000793ceaa000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000b5f DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> sev_free_vcpu+0x413/0x630 arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c:3169 svm_vcpu_free+0x13a/0x2a0 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:1515 kvm_arch_vcpu_destroy+0x6a/0x1d0 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12396 kvm_vcpu_destroy virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:470 [inline] kvm_destroy_vcpus+0xd1/0x300 virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:490 kvm_arch_destroy_vm+0x636/0x820 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12895 kvm_put_kvm+0xb8e/0xfb0 virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:1310 kvm_vm_release+0x48/0x60 virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:1369 __fput+0x3e4/0x9e0 fs/file_table.c:465 task_work_run+0x1a9/0x220 kernel/task_work.c:227 exit_task_work include/linux/task_work.h:40 [inline] do_exit+0x7f0/0x25b0 kernel/exit.c:953 do_group_exit+0x203/0x2d0 kernel/exit.c:1102 get_signal+0x1357/0x1480 kernel/signal.c:3034 arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x40/0x690 arch/x86/kernel/signal.c:337 exit_to_user_mode_loop kernel/entry/common.c:111 [inline] exit_to_user_mode_prepare include/linux/entry-common.h:329 [inline] __syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work kernel/entry/common.c:207 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x67/0xb0 kernel/entry/common.c:218 do_syscall_64+0x7c/0x150 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:100 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f87a898e969 </TASK> Modules linked in: gq(O) gsmi: Log Shutdown Reason 0x03 CR2: ffffebde00000000 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Deliberately don't check for a NULL VMSA when freeing the vCPU, as crashing the host is likely desirable due to the VMSA being consumed by hardware. E.g. if KVM manages to allow VMRUN on the vCPU, hardware may read/write a bogus VMSA page. Accessing P ---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:>= 5.16, < 6.1.146>= 6.2, < 6.6.99>= 6.7, < 6.12.39>= 6.13, < 6.15.7= 6.16
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 6.1.146 / 6.6.99 / 6.12.39 or later
Fixed in 6.1.1466.6.996.12.39
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux kernel 6.1.146+ / 6.6.99+ / 6.12.39+ / 6.15.7+ (choose the appropriate branch for your distribution)

  1. Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 6.1.146 or later for the 6.1 stable branch
  2. Alternatively, upgrade to version 6.6.99 or later for the 6.6 stable branch
  3. Alternatively, upgrade to version 6.12.39 or later for the 6.12 stable branch
  4. Alternatively, upgrade to version 6.15.7 or later for the 6.13+ stable branches
  5. After kernel upgrade, verify the fix is present by checking for the commit 8c8e8d4d7544bb783e15078eda8ba2580e192246 in the kernel changelog
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require system reboot and could affect existing kernel modules; ensure compatibility with existing KVM/QEMU infrastructure

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

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-38455 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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