Linux Kernel up to 5.4.294/5.10.238/5.15.185/6.15.3 jfs jfs_ioc_trim null pointer dereference

CVSS Meta Temp Score
CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.
Current Exploit Price (≈)
Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.
CTI Interest Score
Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
5.0$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.294/5.10.238/5.15.185/6.15.3. Affected is the function jfs_ioc_trim of the component jfs. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-38203. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.4.294/5.10.238/5.15.185/6.15.3. Affected by this vulnerability is the function jfs_ioc_trim of the component jfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: jfs: Fix null-ptr-deref in jfs_ioc_trim [ Syzkaller Report ] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000087: 0000 [#1 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000438-0x000000000000043f] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 10614 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc6-gfbfd64d25c7a-dirty #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 Sched_ext: serialise (enabled+all), task: runnable_at=-30ms RIP: 0010:jfs_ioc_trim+0x34b/0x8f0 Code: e7 e8 59 a4 87 fe 4d 8b 24 24 4d 8d bc 24 38 04 00 00 48 8d 93 90 82 fe ff 4c 89 ff 31 f6 RSP: 0018:ffffc900055f7cd0 EFLAGS: 00010206 RAX: 0000000000000087 RBX: 00005866a9e67ff8 RCX: 000000000000000a RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: dffffc0000000000 R08: ffff88807c180003 R09: 1ffff1100f830000 R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: ffffed100f830001 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000438 FS: 00007fe520225640(0000) GS:ffff8880b7e80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00005593c91b2c88 CR3: 000000014927c000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die_body+0x61/0xb0 ? die_addr+0xb1/0xe0 ? exc_general_protection+0x333/0x510 ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x26/0x30 ? jfs_ioc_trim+0x34b/0x8f0 jfs_ioctl+0x3c8/0x4f0 ? __pfx_jfs_ioctl+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_jfs_ioctl+0x10/0x10 __se_sys_ioctl+0x269/0x350 ? __pfx___se_sys_ioctl+0x10/0x10 ? do_syscall_64+0xfb/0x210 do_syscall_64+0xee/0x210 ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x1e0/0x330 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fe51f4903ad Code: c3 e8 a7 2b 00 00 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d RSP: 002b:00007fe5202250c8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fe51f5cbf80 RCX: 00007fe51f4903ad RDX: 0000000020000680 RSI: 00000000c0185879 RDI: 0000000000000005 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007fe520225640 R13: 000000000000000e R14: 00007fe51f44fca0 R15: 00007fe52021d000 </TASK> Modules linked in: ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- RIP: 0010:jfs_ioc_trim+0x34b/0x8f0 Code: e7 e8 59 a4 87 fe 4d 8b 24 24 4d 8d bc 24 38 04 00 00 48 8d 93 90 82 fe ff 4c 89 ff 31 f6 RSP: 0018:ffffc900055f7cd0 EFLAGS: 00010206 RAX: 0000000000000087 RBX: 00005866a9e67ff8 RCX: 000000000000000a RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: dffffc0000000000 R08: ffff88807c180003 R09: 1ffff1100f830000 R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: ffffed100f830001 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: 0000000000000438 FS: 00007fe520225640(0000) GS:ffff8880b7e80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00005593c91b2c88 CR3: 000000014927c000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception [ Analysis ] We believe that we have found a concurrency bug in the `fs/jfs` module that results in a null pointer dereference. There is a closely related issue which has been fixed: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d6c1b3599b2feb5c7291f5ac3a36e5fa7cedb234 ... but, unfortunately, the accepted patch appears to still be susceptible to a null pointer dereference under some interleavings. To trigger the bug, we think that `JFS_SBI(ipbmap->i_sb)->bmap` is set to NULL in `dbFreeBits` and then dereferenced in `jfs_ioc_trim`. This bug manifests quite rarely under normal circumstances, but is triggereable from a syz-program.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-38203 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 248408 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-38203), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.4.295, 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 6.15.4 or 6.16-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 0d50231d473f89024158dc62624930de45d13718/a9d41c925069c950e18160e12a7e10e0f58c56fb/4a8cb9908b51500a76f5156423bd295df53bff89/9806ae34d7d661c372247cd36f83bfa0523d60ed/a4685408ff6c3e2af366ad9a7274f45ff3f394ee 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 (248408), EUVD (EUVD-2025-20053) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1465). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

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

Productinfo

Type

Vendor

Name

Version

License

Website

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 5.1
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.0

VulDB Base Score: 4.8
VulDB Temp Score: 4.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔒

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

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

Exploitinginfo

Class: Null pointer dereference
CWE: CWE-476 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-DayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
TodayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

Nessus ID: 248408
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-38203

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 5.4.295/5.10.239/5.15.186/6.15.4/6.16-rc1
Patch: 0d50231d473f89024158dc62624930de45d13718/a9d41c925069c950e18160e12a7e10e0f58c56fb/4a8cb9908b51500a76f5156423bd295df53bff89/9806ae34d7d661c372247cd36f83bfa0523d60ed/a4685408ff6c3e2af366ad9a7274f45ff3f394ee

Timelineinfo

04/16/2025 CVE reserved
07/04/2025 +79 days Advisory disclosed
07/04/2025 +0 days VulDB entry created
12/19/2025 +168 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2025-38203 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2025-38203
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-314929
EUVD: 🔒
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2025-1465 - Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen erm&ouml;glichen Denial of Service

Entryinfo

Created: 07/04/2025 16:23
Updated: 12/19/2025 05:40
Changes: 07/04/2025 16:23 (59), 07/04/2025 20:37 (1), 07/20/2025 18:35 (7), 08/12/2025 11:34 (2), 08/25/2025 17:04 (1), 09/11/2025 05:53 (1), 09/21/2025 01:41 (1), 11/03/2025 00:43 (1), 12/13/2025 22:17 (1), 12/19/2025 05:40 (13)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

Want to know what is going to be exploited?

We predict KEV entries!