CVE-2025-38675 (GCVE-0-2025-38675)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-08-22 16:04 – Updated: 2026-08-05 12:03
VLAI
Title
xfrm: state: initialize state_ptrs earlier in xfrm_state_find
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: state: initialize state_ptrs earlier in xfrm_state_find In case of preemption, xfrm_state_look_at will find a different pcpu_id and look up states for that other CPU. If we matched a state for CPU2 in the state_cache while the lookup started on CPU1, we will jump to "found", but the "best" state that we got will be ignored and we will enter the "acquire" block. This block uses state_ptrs, which isn't initialized at this point. Let's initialize state_ptrs just after taking rcu_read_lock. This will also prevent a possible misuse in the future, if someone adjusts this function.
Severity
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Affected: a16871c7832ea6435abb6e0b58289ae7dcb7e4fc , < 6bf2daafc51bcb9272c0fdff2afd38217337d0d3 (git)
Affected: e952837f3ddb0ff726d5b582aa1aad9aa38d024d , < 463562f9591742be62ddde3b426a0533ed496955 (git)
Affected: e952837f3ddb0ff726d5b582aa1aad9aa38d024d , < 94d077c331730510d5611b438640a292097341f0 (git)
Affected: b86dc510308d7a8955f3f47a4fea4bef887653e4 (git)
Affected: dd4c2a174994238d55ab54da2545543d36f4e0d0 (git)
Affected: 6.12.13 , < 6.12.41 (semver)
Affected: 6.6.120 , < 6.7 (semver)
Affected: 6.13.2 , < 6.14 (semver)
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Linux Linux Affected: 6.14
Unaffected: 0 , < 6.14 (semver)
Unaffected: 6.12.41 , ≤ 6.12.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.15.9 , ≤ 6.15.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.16 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
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              "value": "AV:L - The vulnerable code is the IPsec transmit path (`xfrm_lookup` \u2192 `xfrm_tmpl_resolve_one` \u2192 `xfrm_state_find`), reached by a local task sending packets plus xfrm netlink configuration of the policy/SAs. The remote forwarding path also calls this function but executes with preemption disabled in softirq, so the CPU-migration window required to skip `xfrm_hash_ptrs_get()` is only reachable from local, preemptible process context.\nAC:L - The attacker controls both sides of the race: it installs the `XFRM_POLICY_CPU_ACQUIRE` policy and the per-CPU SAs that populate `state_cache_list`, then re-triggers the lookup unboundedly by sending packets from many threads while driving scheduler churn (load, `sched_setaffinity`) to force the migration between the two `get_cpu()` reads. syzbot hit it by fuzzing alone, showing no attacker-uncontrollable precondition is involved.\nPR:L - Installing the per-CPU-acquire policy and SAs goes through `xfrm_user_rcv_msg()`, guarded by `netlink_net_capable(skb, CAP_NET_ADMIN)`, which resolves to `ns_capable()` against the netns\u0027s user namespace \u2014 so an unprivileged user obtains it with `unshare -Urn` and then sends the triggering traffic in their own netns.\nUI:N - The attacker performs every step itself \u2014 netlink policy/SA setup and packet transmission \u2014 with no action by any other user or administrator.\nS:U - The uninitialized-pointer dereference and any resulting corruption stay within the kernel\u0027s own security authority; no VM, IOMMU, or sandbox boundary is crossed.\nC:H - `__xfrm_state_lookup_all()` dereferences the uninitialized `state_ptrs-\u003ebyspi` at an offset masked by an uninitialized `hmask` (up to ~2^32 entries), producing an unbounded read of arbitrary kernel memory that is then interpreted as a `struct xfrm_state`; the read result observably steers control flow (`-EEXIST` vs. new acquire), and the stack residue can be groomed to point at attacker-chosen kernel objects.\nI:H - On a field match the wild \"state\" is passed to `xfrm_state_hold_rcu()` (`refcount_inc_not_zero`) and then `xfrm_state_put()` (`refcount_dec_and_test` \u2192 `__xfrm_state_destroy`), giving increment/decrement writes at an uncontrolled kernel address and linking a fabricated object onto the global GC list where `___xfrm_state_destroy()` later invokes its destructor pointers and frees it \u2014 a control-flow-hijack-capable corruption primitive.\nA:H - In the overwhelmingly common case the garbage `byspi` pointer plus huge `hmask`-derived offset lands on unmapped memory, causing an immediate oops/GPF (or KASAN wild-memory-access) in the IPsec output path, which is exactly what syzbot reported."
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This will\\nalso prevent a possible misuse in the future, if someone adjusts this\\nfunction.\"},{\"lang\":\"es\",\"value\":\"En el kernel de Linux, se ha resuelto la siguiente vulnerabilidad: xfrm: state: inicializar state_ptrs antes en xfrm_state_find. En caso de preempci\u00f3n, xfrm_state_look_at encontrar\u00e1 un pcpu_id diferente y buscar\u00e1 los estados de esa otra CPU. Si se encontr\u00f3 un estado para la CPU2 en state_cache mientras la b\u00fasqueda se iniciaba en la CPU1, se saltar\u00e1 a \\\"found\\\", pero se ignorar\u00e1 el mejor estado obtenido y se acceder\u00e1 al bloque \\\"acquire\\\". Este bloque utiliza state_ptrs, que a\u00fan no est\u00e1 inicializado. Inicialicemos state_ptrs justo despu\u00e9s de ejecutar rcu_read_lock. 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37d0d3\",\"source\":\"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67\",\"tags\":[\"Patch\"]},{\"url\":\"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/94d077c331730510d5611b438640a292097341f0\",\"source\":\"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67\",\"tags\":[\"Patch\"]}]}}",
    "redhat_vex": {
      "aggregate_severity": "Moderate",
      "current_release_date": "2026-07-30T09:03:18+00:00",
      "cve": "CVE-2025-38675",
      "id": "CVE-2025-38675",
      "initial_release_date": "2025-08-22T00:00:00+00:00",
      "product_status:known_affected": "14",
      "product_status:known_not_affected": "260",
      "source": "Red Hat CSAF VEX",
      "status": "final",
      "title": "kernel: xfrm: state: initialize state_ptrs earlier in xfrm_state_find",
      "url": "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-38675.json",
      "version": "3"
    }
  }
}



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