Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38271)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38271). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 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: prevent a NULL deref in rtnl_create_link()

At the time rtnl_create_link() is running, dev->netdev_ops is NULL,
we must not use netdev_lock_ops() or risk a NULL deref if
CONFIG_NET_SHAPER is defined.

Use netif_set_group() instead of dev_set_group().

RIP: 0010:netdev_need_ops_lock include/net/netdev_lock.h:33 [inline]
RIP: 0010:netdev_lock_ops include/net/netdev_lock.h:41 [inline]
RIP: 0010:dev_set_group+0xc0/0x230 net/core/dev_api.c:82
Call Trace:

rtnl_create_link+0x748/0xd10 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3674
rtnl_newlink_create+0x25c/0xb00 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3813
__rtnl_newlink net/core/rtnetlink.c:3940 [inline]
rtnl_newlink+0x16d6/0x1c70 net/core/rtnetlink.c:4055
rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x7cf/0xb70 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6944
netlink_rcv_skb+0x208/0x470 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2534
netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1313 [inline]
netlink_unicast+0x75b/0x8d0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1339
netlink_sendmsg+0x805/0xb30 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1883
sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline]

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-2025-38271 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.15.3 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-38271" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-38271 (Kernel)
Patched: 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 6.15.3.

🛡️ 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 6.15.3
```
ステージング環境で 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":"6.15.0"},{"fixed":"6.15.3"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-38271 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.18.35-r1