Linux Kernel up to 6.12.35/6.15.4/6.16-rc3 io_uring unpin_user_folio buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.35/6.15.4/6.16-rc3. It has been declared as critical. Affected is the function unpin_user_folio of the component io_uring. Such manipulation leads to buffer overflow. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-38256. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.35/6.15.4/6.16-rc3. Affected by this issue is the function unpin_user_folio of the component io_uring. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring/rsrc: fix folio unpinning syzbot complains about an unmapping failure: [ 108.070381][ T14] kernel BUG at mm/gup.c:71! [ 108.070502][ T14] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP [ 108.123672][ T14] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS edk2-20250221-8.fc42 02/21/2025 [ 108.127458][ T14] Workqueue: iou_exit io_ring_exit_work [ 108.174205][ T14] Call trace: [ 108.175649][ T14] sanity_check_pinned_pages+0x7cc/0x7d0 (P) [ 108.178138][ T14] unpin_user_page+0x80/0x10c [ 108.180189][ T14] io_release_ubuf+0x84/0xf8 [ 108.182196][ T14] io_free_rsrc_node+0x250/0x57c [ 108.184345][ T14] io_rsrc_data_free+0x148/0x298 [ 108.186493][ T14] io_sqe_buffers_unregister+0x84/0xa0 [ 108.188991][ T14] io_ring_ctx_free+0x48/0x480 [ 108.191057][ T14] io_ring_exit_work+0x764/0x7d8 [ 108.193207][ T14] process_one_work+0x7e8/0x155c [ 108.195431][ T14] worker_thread+0x958/0xed8 [ 108.197561][ T14] kthread+0x5fc/0x75c [ 108.199362][ T14] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 We can pin a tail page of a folio, but then io_uring will try to unpin the head page of the folio. While it should be fine in terms of keeping the page actually alive, mm folks say it's wrong and triggers a debug warning. Use unpin_user_folio() instead of unpin_user_page*. [axboe: adapt to current tree, massage commit message]

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-38256 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 05/02/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 258053 (SUSE SLED15 / SLES15 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:02997-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.36, 6.15.5 or 6.16-rc4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 53fd75f25b223878b5fff14932e3a22f42b54f77/11e7b7369e655e6131387b174218d7fa9557b3da/5afb4bf9fc62d828647647ec31745083637132e4 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 (258053), EUVD (EUVD-2025-20805) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1517). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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

• 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
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.15.0
• 6.15.1
• 6.15.2
• 6.15.3
• 6.15.4
• 6.16-rc1
• 6.16-rc2
• 6.16-rc3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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