Linux Kernel up to 6.16-rc1 mdiobus out-of-bounds write

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7.4	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.16-rc1. Affected is an unknown function of the component mdiobus. The manipulation leads to out-of-bounds write. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-38111. No exploit exists. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.16-rc1. This issue affects some unknown functionality of the component mdiobus. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds write vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-787. The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mdiobus: Fix potential out-of-bounds read/write access When using publicly available tools like 'mdio-tools' to read/write data from/to network interface and its PHY via mdiobus, there is no verification of parameters passed to the ioctl and it accepts any mdio address. Currently there is support for 32 addresses in kernel via PHY_MAX_ADDR define, but it is possible to pass higher value than that via ioctl. While read/write operation should generally fail in this case, mdiobus provides stats array, where wrong address may allow out-of-bounds read/write. Fix that by adding address verification before read/write operation. While this excludes this access from any statistics, it improves security of read/write operation.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-38111 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 12/16/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 243500 (Amazon Linux 2023 : bpftool, kernel, kernel-devel (ALAS2023-2025-1111)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 6.1.142, 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15.3 or 6.16-rc2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 19c5875e26c4ed5686d82a7d8f7051385461b9eb/014ad9210373d2104f6ef10e6bb999a7a0a4c50e/73d478234a619f3476028cb02dee699c30ae8262/bab6bca0834cbb5be2a7cfe59ec6ad016ec72608/b02d9d2732483e670bc34cb233d28e1d43b15da4/049af7ac45a6b407748ee0995278fd861e36df8f/0e629694126ca388916f059453a1c36adde219c4 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 (243500), EUVD (EUVD-2025-19832) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1452). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

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

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.238
• 5.15.185
• 6.1.141
• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.6.59
• 6.6.60
• 6.6.61
• 6.6.62
• 6.6.63
• 6.6.64
• 6.6.65
• 6.6.66
• 6.6.67
• 6.6.68
• 6.6.69
• 6.6.70
• 6.6.71
• 6.6.72
• 6.6.73
• 6.6.74
• 6.6.75
• 6.6.76
• 6.6.77
• 6.6.78
• 6.6.79
• 6.6.80
• 6.6.81
• 6.6.82
• 6.6.83
• 6.6.84
• 6.6.85
• 6.6.86
• 6.6.87
• 6.6.88
• 6.6.89
• 6.6.90
• 6.6.91
• 6.6.92
• 6.6.93
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.15.0
• 6.15.1
• 6.15.2
• 6.16-rc1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 7.6
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.4

VulDB Base Score: 8.0
VulDB Temp Score: 7.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 7.1
NVD Vector: 🔒

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Out-of-bounds write
CWE: CWE-787 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Nessus ID: 243500
Nessus Name: Amazon Linux 2023 : bpftool, kernel, kernel-devel (ALAS2023-2025-1111)

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 5.10.239/5.15.186/6.1.142/6.6.94/6.12.34/6.15.3/6.16-rc2
Patch: 19c5875e26c4ed5686d82a7d8f7051385461b9eb/014ad9210373d2104f6ef10e6bb999a7a0a4c50e/73d478234a619f3476028cb02dee699c30ae8262/bab6bca0834cbb5be2a7cfe59ec6ad016ec72608/b02d9d2732483e670bc34cb233d28e1d43b15da4/049af7ac45a6b407748ee0995278fd861e36df8f/0e629694126ca388916f059453a1c36adde219c4

Timelineinfo

04/16/2025 CVE reserved
07/03/2025 +78 days Advisory disclosed
07/03/2025 +0 days VulDB entry created
12/16/2025 +166 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2025-38111 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2025-38111
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-314687
EUVD: 🔒
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2025-1452 - Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen

Entryinfo

Created: 07/03/2025 11:39
Updated: 12/16/2025 18:34
Changes: 07/03/2025 11:39 (58), 07/03/2025 14:51 (1), 08/05/2025 11:28 (2), 08/23/2025 16:23 (7), 09/21/2025 15:38 (1), 11/09/2025 11:48 (1), 12/06/2025 03:20 (1), 12/16/2025 18:34 (12)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216:F34:103

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Discussion

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