VDB-315775 · CVE-2025-38255 · EUVD-2025-20806

Linux Kernel up to 6.6.95/6.12.35/6.15.4/6.16-rc3 group_cpus_evenly null pointer dereference

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5.0	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.95/6.12.35/6.15.4/6.16-rc3. It has been classified as critical. This impacts the function group_cpus_evenly. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2025-38255. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.95/6.12.35/6.15.4/6.16-rc3. Affected by this vulnerability is the function group_cpus_evenly. 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: lib/group_cpus: fix NULL pointer dereference from group_cpus_evenly() While testing null_blk with configfs, echo 0 > poll_queues will trigger following panic: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 27 UID: 0 PID: 920 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.15.0-02023-gadbdb95c8696-dirty #1238 PREEMPT(undef) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:__bitmap_or+0x48/0x70 Call Trace: <TASK> __group_cpus_evenly+0x822/0x8c0 group_cpus_evenly+0x2d9/0x490 blk_mq_map_queues+0x1e/0x110 null_map_queues+0xc9/0x170 [null_blk] blk_mq_update_queue_map+0xdb/0x160 blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues+0x22b/0x560 nullb_update_nr_hw_queues+0x71/0xf0 [null_blk] nullb_device_poll_queues_store+0xa4/0x130 [null_blk] configfs_write_iter+0x109/0x1d0 vfs_write+0x26e/0x6f0 ksys_write+0x79/0x180 __x64_sys_write+0x1d/0x30 x64_sys_call+0x45c4/0x45f0 do_syscall_64+0xa5/0x240 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Root cause is that numgrps is set to 0, and ZERO_SIZE_PTR is returned from kcalloc(), and later ZERO_SIZE_PTR will be deferenced. Fix the problem by checking numgrps first in group_cpus_evenly(), and return NULL directly if numgrps is zero. [[email protected]: also fix the non-SMP version]

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-38255 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 271193 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / 25.04 : Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities (USN-7834-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.96, 6.12.36, 6.15.5 or 6.16-rc4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 64a99eff8dcf1f951a544e6058341b2b19a8fdbd/29d39e0d5f16c060e32542b2cf351c09fd22b250/911ef2e8a7de5b2bae8ff11fb0bd01f699e6db65/df831e97739405ecbaddb85516bc7d4d1c933d6b 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 (271193), EUVD (EUVD-2025-20806) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1517). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

Debian Linux
Google Cloud Platform
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
IBM QRadar SIEM
SUSE openSUSE
NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
Dell Avamar
Open Source Linux Kernel
Dell NetWorker
Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

Operating System

Vendor

Linux

Name

Kernel

Version

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: 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

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
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Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
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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: 🔍