Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38394)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38394). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.15.6 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

HID: appletb-kbd: fix memory corruption of input_handler_list

In appletb_kbd_probe an input handler is initialised and then registered
with input core through input_register_handler(). When this happens input
core will add the input handler (specifically its node) to the global
input_handler_list. The input_handler_list is central to the functionality
of input core and is traversed in various places in input core. An example
of this is when a new input device is plugged in and gets registered with
input core.

The input_handler in probe is allocated as device managed memory. If a
probe failure occurs after input_register_handler() the input_handler
memory is freed, yet it will remain in the input_handler_list. This
effectively means the input_handler_list contains a dangling pointer
to data belonging to a freed input handler.

This causes an issue when any other input device is plugged in - in my
case I had an old PixArt HP USB optical mouse and I decided to
plug it in after a failure occurred after input_register_handler().
This lead to the registration of this input device via
input_register_device which involves traversing over every handler
in the corrupted input_handler_list and calling input_attach_handler(),
giving each handler a chance to bind to newly registered device.

The core of this bug is a UAF which causes memory corruption of
input_handler_list and to fix it we must ensure the input handler…

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-2025-38394 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.15.6 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-38394" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-38394 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.15.6 — 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 6.15.6.

🛡️ 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 6.15.6
```
ステージング環境で 6.15.6 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":"6.15.6"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-38394 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.18.35-r1