Linux Kernel up to 6.14.8 vf initialization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as problematic has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.14.8. Affected is an unknown function of the component vf. This manipulation causes initialization. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2025-38036. There is no available exploit. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.14.8. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code of the component vf. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a initialization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-665. The product does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used. The impact remains unknown. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe/vf: Perform early GT MMIO initialization to read GMDID VFs need to communicate with the GuC to obtain the GMDID value and existing GuC functions used for that assume that the GT has it's MMIO members already setup. However, due to recent refactoring the gt->mmio is initialized later, and any attempt by the VF to use xe_mmio_read|write() from GuC functions will lead to NPD crash due to unset MMIO register address: [] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm] Running in SR-IOV VF mode [] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm] GT0: sending H2G MMIO 0x5507 [] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000000190240 Since we are already tweaking the id and type of the primary GT to mimic it's a Media GT before initializing the GuC communication, we can also call xe_gt_mmio_init() to perform early setup of the gt->mmio which will make those GuC functions work again.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-38036 since 04/16/2025. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 265934 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / 25.04 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7769-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.14.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ef6e950aea76a5009ccc79ebfa955ecc66cd85a2/13265fe7426ec9ba5aa86baab913417ca361e8a4 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (265934) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1350). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.14.4
• 6.14.5
• 6.14.6
• 6.14.7
• 6.14.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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