Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38720)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-38720). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 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:

net: hibmcge: fix rtnl deadlock issue

Currently, the hibmcge netdev acquires the rtnl_lock in
pci_error_handlers.reset_prepare() and releases it in
pci_error_handlers.reset_done().

However, in the PCI framework:
pci_reset_bus - __pci_reset_slot - pci_slot_save_and_disable_locked -
pci_dev_save_and_disable - err_handler->reset_prepare(dev);

In pci_slot_save_and_disable_locked():
list_for_each_entry(dev, &slot->bus->devices, bus_list) {
if (!dev->slot || dev->slot!= slot)
continue;
pci_dev_save_and_disable(dev);
if (dev->subordinate)
pci_bus_save_and_disable_locked(dev->subordinate);
}

This will iterate through all devices under the current bus and execute
err_handler->reset_prepare(), causing two devices of the hibmcge driver
to sequentially request the rtnl_lock, leading to a deadlock.

Since the driver now executes netif_device_detach()
before the reset process, it will not concurrently with
other netdev APIs, so there is no need to hold the rtnl_lock now.

Therefore, this patch removes the rtnl_lock during the reset process and
adjusts the position of HBG_NIC_STATE_RESETTING to ensure
that multiple resets are not executed concurrently.

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-2025-38720 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.15.11, 6.16.2 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-38720" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-38720 (Kernel)
Patched: 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 6.15.11, 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 6.15.11, 6.16.2
```
ステージング環境で 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":"6.14.0"},{"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-2025-38720 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.18.35-r1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38720 linux-hwe-edge