Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38692)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38692). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

exfat: add cluster chain loop check for dir

An infinite loop may occur if the following conditions occur due to
file system corruption.

(1) Condition for exfat_count_dir_entries() to loop infinitely.
- The cluster chain includes a loop.
- There is no UNUSED entry in the cluster chain.

(2) Condition for exfat_create_upcase_table() to loop infinitely.
- The cluster chain of the root directory includes a loop.
- There are no UNUSED entry and up-case table entry in the cluster
chain of the root directory.

(3) Condition for exfat_load_bitmap() to loop infinitely.
- The cluster chain of the root directory includes a loop.
- There are no UNUSED entry and bitmap entry in the cluster chain
of the root directory.

(4) Condition for exfat_find_dir_entry() to loop infinitely.
- The cluster chain includes a loop.
- The unused directory entries were exhausted by some operation.

(5) Condition for exfat_check_dir_empty() to loop infinitely.
- The cluster chain includes a loop.
- The unused directory entries were exhausted by some operation.
- All files and sub-directories under the directory are deleted.

This commit adds checks to break the above infinite loop.

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-2025-38692 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-38692" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-38692 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2 — 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 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2.

🛡️ 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 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2
```
ステージング環境で 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2 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":"5.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.103"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.43"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.15.11"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.16.2"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-38692 linux-lts
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38692 linux
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38692 linux