VDB-315976 · CVE-2025-38334 · EUVD-2025-20912

Linux Kernel up to 6.1.141/6.6.94/6.12.34/6.15.3 SGX Page arch_memory_failure state issue

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4.9	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as problematic has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.141/6.6.94/6.12.34/6.15.3. Affected by this issue is the function arch_memory_failure of the component SGX Page. Executing a manipulation can lead to state issue. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-38334. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.141/6.6.94/6.12.34/6.15.3 and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function arch_memory_failure of the component SGX Page. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a state issue vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-371. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/sgx: Prevent attempts to reclaim poisoned pages TL;DR: SGX page reclaim touches the page to copy its contents to secondary storage. SGX instructions do not gracefully handle machine checks. Despite this, the existing SGX code will try to reclaim pages that it _knows_ are poisoned. Avoid even trying to reclaim poisoned pages. The longer story: Pages used by an enclave only get epc_page->poison set in arch_memory_failure() but they currently stay on sgx_active_page_list until sgx_encl_release(), with the SGX_EPC_PAGE_RECLAIMER_TRACKED flag untouched. epc_page->poison is not checked in the reclaimer logic meaning that, if other conditions are met, an attempt will be made to reclaim an EPC page that was poisoned. This is bad because 1. we don't want that page to end up added to another enclave and 2. it is likely to cause one core to shut down and the kernel to panic. Specifically, reclaiming uses microcode operations including "EWB" which accesses the EPC page contents to encrypt and write them out to non-SGX memory. Those operations cannot handle MCEs in their accesses other than by putting the executing core into a special shutdown state (affecting both threads with HT.) The kernel will subsequently panic on the remaining cores seeing the core didn't enter MCE handler(s) in time. Call sgx_unmark_page_reclaimable() to remove the affected EPC page from sgx_active_page_list on memory error to stop it being considered for reclaiming. Testing epc_page->poison in sgx_reclaim_pages() would also work but I assume it's better to add code in the less likely paths. The affected EPC page is not added to &node->sgx_poison_page_list until later in sgx_encl_release()->sgx_free_epc_page() when it is EREMOVEd. Membership on other lists doesn't change to avoid changing any of the lists' semantics except for sgx_active_page_list. There's a "TBD" comment in arch_memory_failure() about pre-emptive actions, the goal here is not to address everything that it may imply. This also doesn't completely close the time window when a memory error notification will be fatal (for a not previously poisoned EPC page) -- the MCE can happen after sgx_reclaim_pages() has selected its candidates or even *inside* a microcode operation (actually easy to trigger due to the amount of time spent in them.) The spinlock in sgx_unmark_page_reclaimable() is safe because memory_failure() runs in process context and no spinlocks are held, explicitly noted in a mm/memory-failure.c comment.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-38334 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. 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 12/16/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 253428 (SUSE SLES15 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:02923-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.142, 6.6.95, 6.12.35, 6.15.4 or 6.16-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 00a88e9ea1b170d579c56327c38f7e8cf689df87/62b62a2a6dc51ed6e8e334861f04220c9cf8106a/dc5de5bd6deabd327ced2b2b1d0b4f14cd146afe/31dcbac94bfeabb86bf85b0c36803fdd6536437b/ed16618c380c32c68c06186d0ccbb0d5e0586e59 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 (253428), EUVD (EUVD-2025-20912) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1522). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

Google Container-Optimized OS
Debian Linux
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
IBM QRadar SIEM
SUSE openSUSE
RESF Rocky Linux
Open Source Linux Kernel
Dell Avamar
Dell NetWorker

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: 5.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 4.9

VulDB Base Score: 4.6
VulDB Temp Score: 4.4
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔒

CVSSv2info

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

Exploitinginfo

Class: State issue
CWE: CWE-371
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒