Linux Kernel up to 6.12.66/6.18.6/6.19-rc5 Tegra ADMA Driver tegra_adma_terminate_all use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.66/6.18.6/6.19-rc5. Affected by this vulnerability is the function tegra_adma_terminate_all of the component Tegra ADMA Driver. Executing a manipulation can lead to use after free. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-71162. There is not any exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.66/6.18.6/6.19-rc5. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects the function tegra_adma_terminate_all of the component Tegra ADMA Driver. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dmaengine: tegra-adma: Fix use-after-free A use-after-free bug exists in the Tegra ADMA driver when audio streams are terminated, particularly during XRUN conditions. The issue occurs when the DMA buffer is freed by tegra_adma_terminate_all() before the vchan completion tasklet finishes accessing it. The race condition follows this sequence: 1. DMA transfer completes, triggering an interrupt that schedules the completion tasklet (tasklet has not executed yet) 2. Audio playback stops, calling tegra_adma_terminate_all() which frees the DMA buffer memory via kfree() 3. The scheduled tasklet finally executes, calling vchan_complete() which attempts to access the already-freed memory Since tasklets can execute at any time after being scheduled, there is no guarantee that the buffer will remain valid when vchan_complete() runs. Fix this by properly synchronizing the virtual channel completion: - Calling vchan_terminate_vdesc() in tegra_adma_stop() to mark the descriptors as terminated instead of freeing the descriptor. - Add the callback tegra_adma_synchronize() that calls vchan_synchronize() which kills any pending tasklets and frees any terminated descriptors. Crash logs: [ 337.427523] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in vchan_complete+0x124/0x3b0 [ 337.427544] Read of size 8 at addr ffff000132055428 by task swapper/0/0 [ 337.427562] Call trace: [ 337.427564] dump_backtrace+0x0/0x320 [ 337.427571] show_stack+0x20/0x30 [ 337.427575] dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x84 [ 337.427584] print_address_description.constprop.0+0x74/0x2b8 [ 337.427590] kasan_report+0x1f4/0x210 [ 337.427598] __asan_load8+0xa0/0xd0 [ 337.427603] vchan_complete+0x124/0x3b0 [ 337.427609] tasklet_action_common.constprop.0+0x190/0x1d0 [ 337.427617] tasklet_action+0x30/0x40 [ 337.427623] __do_softirq+0x1a0/0x5c4 [ 337.427628] irq_exit+0x110/0x140 [ 337.427633] handle_domain_irq+0xa4/0xe0 [ 337.427640] gic_handle_irq+0x64/0x160 [ 337.427644] call_on_irq_stack+0x20/0x4c [ 337.427649] do_interrupt_handler+0x7c/0x90 [ 337.427654] el1_interrupt+0x30/0x80 [ 337.427659] el1h_64_irq_handler+0x18/0x30 [ 337.427663] el1h_64_irq+0x7c/0x80 [ 337.427667] cpuidle_enter_state+0xe4/0x540 [ 337.427674] cpuidle_enter+0x54/0x80 [ 337.427679] do_idle+0x2e0/0x380 [ 337.427685] cpu_startup_entry+0x2c/0x70 [ 337.427690] rest_init+0x114/0x130 [ 337.427695] arch_call_rest_init+0x18/0x24 [ 337.427702] start_kernel+0x380/0x3b4 [ 337.427706] __primary_switched+0xc0/0xc8

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-71162 since 01/13/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/17/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 296536 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-71162), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.67, 6.18.7 or 6.19-rc6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch cb2c9c4bb1322cc3c9984ad17db8cdd2663879ca/be655c3736b3546f39bc8116ffbf2a3b6cac96c4/2efd07a7c36949e6fa36a69183df24d368bf9e96 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 (296536), EUVD (EUVD-2026-4634) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0215). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• Open Source Linux Kernel

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
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.19-rc1
• 6.19-rc2
• 6.19-rc3
• 6.19-rc4
• 6.19-rc5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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

Discussion