Linux Kernel up to 6.6.102/6.12.42/6.15.10/6.16.1 hfs hfs_find_init 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 6.6.102/6.12.42/6.15.10/6.16.1. Affected by this vulnerability is the function hfs_find_init of the component hfs. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-38716. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.102/6.12.42/6.15.10/6.16.1. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function hfs_find_init of the component hfs. 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: hfs: fix general protection fault in hfs_find_init() The hfs_find_init() method can trigger the crash if tree pointer is NULL: [ 45.746290][ T9787] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000008: 0000 [#1] SMP KAI [ 45.747287][ T9787] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000040-0x0000000000000047] [ 45.748716][ T9787] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 9787 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3 #10 PREEMPT(full) [ 45.750250][ T9787] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 45.751983][ T9787] RIP: 0010:hfs_find_init+0x86/0x230 [ 45.752834][ T9787] Code: c1 ea 03 80 3c 02 00 0f 85 9a 01 00 00 4c 8d 6b 40 48 c7 45 18 00 00 00 00 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc [ 45.755574][ T9787] RSP: 0018:ffffc90015157668 EFLAGS: 00010202 [ 45.756432][ T9787] RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffff819a4d09 [ 45.757457][ T9787] RDX: 0000000000000008 RSI: ffffffff819acd3a RDI: ffffc900151576e8 [ 45.758282][ T9787] RBP: ffffc900151576d0 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 45.758943][ T9787] R10: 0000000080000000 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000000000004 [ 45.759619][ T9787] R13: 0000000000000040 R14: ffff88802c50814a R15: 0000000000000000 [ 45.760293][ T9787] FS: 00007ffb72734540(0000) GS:ffff8880cec64000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 45.761050][ T9787] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 45.761606][ T9787] CR2: 00007f9bd8225000 CR3: 000000010979a000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 [ 45.762286][ T9787] Call Trace: [ 45.762570][ T9787] <TASK> [ 45.762824][ T9787] hfs_ext_read_extent+0x190/0x9d0 [ 45.763269][ T9787] ? submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0x2dd/0xce0 [ 45.763766][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_ext_read_extent+0x10/0x10 [ 45.764250][ T9787] hfs_get_block+0x55f/0x830 [ 45.764646][ T9787] block_read_full_folio+0x36d/0x850 [ 45.765105][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_get_block+0x10/0x10 [ 45.765541][ T9787] ? const_folio_flags+0x5b/0x100 [ 45.765972][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 45.766415][ T9787] filemap_read_folio+0xbe/0x290 [ 45.766840][ T9787] ? __pfx_filemap_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 45.767325][ T9787] ? __filemap_get_folio+0x32b/0xbf0 [ 45.767780][ T9787] do_read_cache_folio+0x263/0x5c0 [ 45.768223][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 45.768666][ T9787] read_cache_page+0x5b/0x160 [ 45.769070][ T9787] hfs_btree_open+0x491/0x1740 [ 45.769481][ T9787] hfs_mdb_get+0x15e2/0x1fb0 [ 45.769877][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_mdb_get+0x10/0x10 [ 45.770316][ T9787] ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 [ 45.770731][ T9787] ? lockdep_init_map_type+0x5c/0x280 [ 45.771200][ T9787] ? lockdep_init_map_type+0x5c/0x280 [ 45.771674][ T9787] hfs_fill_super+0x38e/0x720 [ 45.772092][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_fill_super+0x10/0x10 [ 45.772549][ T9787] ? snprintf+0xbe/0x100 [ 45.772931][ T9787] ? __pfx_snprintf+0x10/0x10 [ 45.773350][ T9787] ? do_raw_spin_lock+0x129/0x2b0 [ 45.773796][ T9787] ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 [ 45.774215][ T9787] ? set_blocksize+0x40a/0x510 [ 45.774636][ T9787] ? sb_set_blocksize+0x176/0x1d0 [ 45.775087][ T9787] ? setup_bdev_super+0x369/0x730 [ 45.775533][ T9787] get_tree_bdev_flags+0x384/0x620 [ 45.775985][ T9787] ? __pfx_hfs_fill_super+0x10/0x10 [ 45.776453][ T9787] ? __pfx_get_tree_bdev_flags+0x10/0x10 [ 45.776950][ T9787] ? bpf_lsm_capable+0x9/0x10 [ 45.777365][ T9787] ? security_capable+0x80/0x260 [ 45.777803][ T9787] vfs_get_tree+0x8e/0x340 [ 45.778203][ T9787] path_mount+0x13de/0x2010 [ 45.778604][ T9787] ? kmem_cache_free+0x2b0/0x4c0 [ 45.779052][ T9787] ? __pfx_path_mount+0x10/0x10 [ 45.779480][ T9787] ? getname_flags.part.0+0x1c5/0x550 [ 45.779954][ T9787] ? putname+0x154/0x1a0 [ 45.780335][ T9787] __x64_sys_mount+0x27b/0x300 [ 45.780758][ T9787] ? __pfx___x64_sys_mount+0x10/0x10 [ 45.781232][ T9787] ---truncated---

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-38716 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 261556 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-38716), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2 or 6.17-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 4f032979b63ad52e08aadf0faeac34ed35133ec0/5d8b249527362e0ccafcaf76b3bec2a0d2aa1498/b918c17a1934ac6309b0083f41d4e9d8fb3bb46c/6e20e10064fdc43231636fca519c15c013a8e3d6/736a0516a16268995f4898eded49bfef077af709 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 (261556) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1976). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

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

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: 261556
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-38716

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.6.103/6.12.43/6.15.11/6.16.2/6.17-rc1
Patch: 4f032979b63ad52e08aadf0faeac34ed35133ec0/5d8b249527362e0ccafcaf76b3bec2a0d2aa1498/b918c17a1934ac6309b0083f41d4e9d8fb3bb46c/6e20e10064fdc43231636fca519c15c013a8e3d6/736a0516a16268995f4898eded49bfef077af709

Timelineinfo

04/16/2025 CVE reserved
09/04/2025 +141 days Advisory disclosed
09/04/2025 +0 days VulDB entry created
02/10/2026 +159 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2025-38716 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2025-38716
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-322531
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2025-1976 - Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen erm&ouml;glichen Denial of Service

Entryinfo

Created: 09/04/2025 18:25
Updated: 02/10/2026 07:22
Changes: 09/04/2025 18:25 (59), 09/05/2025 20:19 (7), 09/07/2025 22:45 (2), 10/08/2025 18:36 (1), 11/26/2025 13:56 (12), 12/10/2025 01:38 (1), 01/15/2026 03:05 (1), 02/10/2026 07:22 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

◂ PreviousOverviewNext ▸

Do you need the next level of professionalism?

Upgrade your account now!