VDB-322871 · CVE-2025-38735 · Nessus 261638

Linux Kernel up to 6.17-rc2 gve shutdown null pointer dereference

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5.0	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.148/6.6.102/6.12.43/6.16.3/6.17-rc2 and classified as critical. Affected is the function shutdown of the component gve. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-38735. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.148/6.6.102/6.12.43/6.16.3/6.17-rc2 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function shutdown of the component gve. The manipulation 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. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gve: prevent ethtool ops after shutdown A crash can occur if an ethtool operation is invoked after shutdown() is called. shutdown() is invoked during system shutdown to stop DMA operations without performing expensive deallocations. It is discouraged to unregister the netdev in this path, so the device may still be visible to userspace and kernel helpers. In gve, shutdown() tears down most internal data structures. If an ethtool operation is dispatched after shutdown(), it will dereference freed or NULL pointers, leading to a kernel panic. While graceful shutdown normally quiesces userspace before invoking the reboot syscall, forced shutdowns (as observed on GCP VMs) can still trigger this path. Fix by calling netif_device_detach() in shutdown(). This marks the device as detached so the ethtool ioctl handler will skip dispatching operations to the driver.

The weakness was released by shutdown. It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-38735 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known 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 261638 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-38735), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.44, 6.16.4 or 6.17-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 48a4e89d50e8ea52e800bc7865970b92fcf4647c/ba51d73408edf815cbaeab148625576c2dd90192/a7efffeecb881b4649fdc30de020ef910f35d646/9d8a41e9a4ff83ff666de811e7f012167cdc00e9/75a9a46d67f46d608205888f9b34e315c1786345 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 (261638) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1988). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

Debian Linux
Google Cloud Platform
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
NetApp FAS
NetApp AFF
NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
SUSE openSUSE
RESF Rocky Linux
Open Source Linux Kernel
Microsoft Azure
Dell Secure Connect Gateway
IBM QRadar SIEM
IBM Security Verify Access
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: 5.1
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

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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: 🔒