Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2025-38690
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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe/migrate: prevent infinite recursion If the buf + offset is not aligned to XE_CAHELINE_BYTES we fallback to using a bounce buffer. However the bounce buffer here is allocated on the stack, and the only alignment requirement here is that it's naturally aligned to u8, and not XE_CACHELINE_BYTES. If the bounce buffer is also misaligned we then recurse back into the function again, however the new bounce buffer might also not be aligned, and might never be until we eventually blow through the stack, as we keep recursing. Instead of using the stack use kmalloc, which should respect the power-of-two alignment request here. Fixes a kernel panic when triggering this path through eudebug. v2 (Stuart): - Add build bug check for power-of-two restriction - s/EINVAL/ENOMEM/ (cherry picked from commit 38b34e928a08ba594c4bbf7118aa3aadacd62fff)
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 analysisAttacker-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
>= 6.16, < 6.16.2= 6.17CVSS 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 · scoped6.16.2
Linux Kernel 6.16.2 or 6.17.1 (depending on which branch you're on)
- Upgrade Linux Kernel to version 6.16.2 or later if using the 6.16.x branch
- Alternatively, upgrade to Linux Kernel 6.17.1 or later if using the 6.17.x branch
- After upgrading, verify the fix by checking that the kernel version matches one of the fixed releases
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-38690 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-38690 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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