Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38109)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38109). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/mlx5: Fix ECVF vports unload on shutdown flow

Fix shutdown flow UAF when a virtual function is created on the embedded
chip (ECVF) of a BlueField device. In such case the vport acl ingress
table is not properly destroyed.

ECVF functionality is independent of ecpf_vport_exists capability and
thus functions mlx5_eswitch_(enable|disable)_pf_vf_vports() should not
test it when enabling/disabling ECVF vports.

kernel log:
[] refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.
[] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 1 at lib/refcount.c:28
refcount_warn_saturate+0x124/0x220

[] Call trace:
[] refcount_warn_saturate+0x124/0x220
[] tree_put_node+0x164/0x1e0 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_destroy_flow_table+0x98/0x2c0 [mlx5_core]
[] esw_acl_ingress_table_destroy+0x28/0x40 [mlx5_core]
[] esw_acl_ingress_lgcy_cleanup+0x80/0xf4 [mlx5_core]
[] esw_legacy_vport_acl_cleanup+0x44/0x60 [mlx5_core]
[] esw_vport_cleanup+0x64/0x90 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_esw_vport_disable+0xc0/0x1d0 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_eswitch_unload_ec_vf_vports+0xcc/0x150 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_eswitch_disable_sriov+0x198/0x2a0 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_device_disable_sriov+0xb8/0x1e0 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_sriov_detach+0x40/0x50 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_unload+0x40/0xc4 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_unload_one_devl_locked+0x6c/0xe4 [mlx5_core]
[] mlx5_unload_one+0x3c/0x60 [mlx5_core]
[] shutdown+0x7c/0xa4 [mlx5_core]
[] pci_device_shutdown+0x3c/0xa0
[] device_shutdown+0x170/0x340
[] __do_sys_reboot+0x1f4…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-38109 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-38109" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-38109 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3
```
ステージング環境で 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.5.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.94"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.34"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.15.3"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-38109 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.41-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38109 linux Fixed in: 6.12.35-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38109 linux