Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2025-38470)
Summary
Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2025-38470). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: vlan: fix VLAN 0 refcount imbalance of toggling filtering during runtime
Assuming the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is enabled on a net device, the
8021q module will automatically add or remove VLAN 0 when the net device
is put administratively up or down, respectively. There are a couple of
problems with the above scheme.
The first problem is a memory leak that can happen if the "rx-vlan-filter"
feature is disabled while the device is running:
ip link add bond1 up type bond mode 0
ethtool -K bond1 rx-vlan-filter off
ip link del dev bond1
When the device is put administratively down the "rx-vlan-filter"
feature is disabled, so the 8021q module will not remove VLAN 0 and the
memory will be leaked [1].
Another problem that can happen is that the kernel can automatically
delete VLAN 0 when the device is put administratively down despite not
adding it when the device was put administratively up since during that
time the "rx-vlan-filter" feature was disabled. null-ptr-unref or
bug_on[2] will be triggered by unregister_vlan_dev() for refcount
imbalance if toggling filtering during runtime:
$ ip link add bond0 type bond mode 0
$ ip link add link bond0 name vlan0 type vlan id 0 protocol 802.1q
$ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter off
$ ifconfig bond0 up
$ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter on
$ ifconfig bond0 down
$ ip link del vlan0
Root cause is as below:
step1: add vlan0 for real_dev, such as bond, tea…
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
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-2025-38470 has been found in Linux kernel.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 7.8/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Linux kernel CVE-2025-38470" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2025-38470 (Linux kernel) — CVSS v3 7.8
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
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.
A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Linux kernel.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Linux kernel.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Audit SBOM/dependencies to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
Audit SBOM/dependencies for affected components.資産台帳・SBOM・依存マニフェストで Linux kernel を使っているサービスとバージョンを洗い出す。
-
2Post-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。
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-38470 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.1.147-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38470 linux Fixed in: 5.10.244-1
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38470 linux
References
- advisory lists.debian.org
- advisory lists.debian.org
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- advisory github.com
- package git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- patch git.kernel.org
- web cert-portal.siemens.com
- web github.com