Linux Kernel up to 6.15.8 dma_buf null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.15.8 and classified as critical. Affected is an unknown function. Such manipulation of the argument dma_buf leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-38674. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.15.8. Affected by this issue is an unknown code. The manipulation of the argument dma_buf with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Revert "drm/prime: Use dma_buf from GEM object instance" This reverts commit f83a9b8c7fd0557b0c50784bfdc1bbe9140c9bf8. The dma_buf field in struct drm_gem_object is not stable over the object instance's lifetime. The field becomes NULL when user space releases the final GEM handle on the buffer object. This resulted in a NULL-pointer deref. Workarounds in commit 5307dce878d4 ("drm/gem: Acquire references on GEM handles for framebuffers") and commit f6bfc9afc751 ("drm/framebuffer: Acquire internal references on GEM handles") only solved the problem partially. They especially don't work for buffer objects without a DRM framebuffer associated. Hence, this revert to going back to using .import_attach->dmabuf. v3: - cc stable

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-38674 since 04/16/2025. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 260427 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-38674), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.15.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5f05d83ce689a8930a70dfa73f879604aef8cc03/fb4ef4a52b79a22ad382bfe77332642d02aef773 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 (260427) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1898). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• NetApp AFF
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• SUSE openSUSE
• Dell Avamar
• NetApp FAS
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.15.0
• 6.15.1
• 6.15.2
• 6.15.3
• 6.15.4
• 6.15.5
• 6.15.6
• 6.15.7
• 6.15.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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