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Linux CVE-2025-37957

HIGH
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2025-05-20 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Information Disclosure Linux Use After Free Memory Corruption
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
CWE-416
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2021 - Vulnerable and Outdated Components
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Memory lifecycle management
MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

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Impact

CVSS score of 7.8 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: local attack vector, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.07%.
Exploit ScenarioDerived

A local attacker with access to the system could access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.1% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 28, 2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Forcibly leave SMM mode on SHUTDOWN interception Previously, commit ed129ec9057f ("KVM: x86: forcibly leave nested mode. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Use After Free vulnerability could allow attackers to access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application.

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Use smart pointers or garbage-collected languages. Set pointers to NULL after freeing. Enable memory sanitizers.

Affects your stack

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Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as Use After Free (CWE-416), which allows attackers to access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: SVM: Forcibly leave SMM mode on SHUTDOWN interception Previously, commit ed129ec9057f ("KVM: x86: forcibly leave nested mode on vCPU reset") addressed an issue where a triple fault occurring in nested mode could lead to use-after-free scenarios. However, the commit did not handle the analogous situation for System Management Mode (SMM). This omission results in triggering a WARN when KVM forces a vCPU INIT after SHUTDOWN interception while the vCPU is in SMM. This situation was reprodused using Syzkaller by: 1) Creating a KVM VM and vCPU 2) Sending a KVM_SMI ioctl to explicitly enter SMM 3) Executing invalid instructions causing consecutive exceptions and eventually a triple fault The issue manifests as follows: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 25506 at arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 kvm_vcpu_reset+0x1d2/0x1530 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 25506 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.1.130-syzkaller-00157-g164fe5dde9b6 #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:kvm_vcpu_reset+0x1d2/0x1530 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 Call Trace: <TASK> shutdown_interception+0x66/0xb0 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:2136 svm_invoke_exit_handler+0x110/0x530 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:3395 svm_handle_exit+0x424/0x920 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:3457 vcpu_enter_guest arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:10959 [inline] vcpu_run+0x2c43/0x5a90 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11062 kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x50f/0x1cf0 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11283 kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x570/0xf00 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4122 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:870 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:856 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x19a/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:856 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 arch/x86/entry/common.c:81 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8 Architecturally, INIT is blocked when the CPU is in SMM, hence KVM's WARN() in kvm_vcpu_reset() to guard against KVM bugs, e.g. to detect improper emulation of INIT. SHUTDOWN on SVM is a weird edge case where KVM needs to do _something_ sane with the VMCB, since it's technically undefined, and INIT is the least awful choice given KVM's ABI. So, double down on stuffing INIT on SHUTDOWN, and force the vCPU out of SMM to avoid any weirdness (and the WARN). Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller. [sean: massage changelog, make it clear this isn't architectural behavior] Affected products include: Linux Linux Kernel.

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SUSE HIGH
Red Hat 4.4 MEDIUM

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch released
Mar 28, 2026 - 18:42 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
May 20, 2025 - 16:15 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionNVD

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

KVM: SVM: Forcibly leave SMM mode on SHUTDOWN interception

Previously, commit ed129ec9057f ("KVM: x86: forcibly leave nested mode on vCPU reset") addressed an issue where a triple fault occurring in nested mode could lead to use-after-free scenarios. However, the commit did not handle the analogous situation for System Management Mode (SMM).

This omission results in triggering a WARN when KVM forces a vCPU INIT after SHUTDOWN interception while the vCPU is in SMM. This situation was reprodused using Syzkaller by:

  1. Creating a KVM VM and vCPU
  2. Sending a KVM_SMI ioctl to explicitly enter SMM
  3. Executing invalid instructions causing consecutive exceptions and

eventually a triple fault

The issue manifests as follows:

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 25506 at arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 kvm_vcpu_reset+0x1d2/0x1530 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 25506 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 6.1.130-syzkaller-00157-g164fe5dde9b6 #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:kvm_vcpu_reset+0x1d2/0x1530 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:12112 Call Trace: <TASK> shutdown_interception+0x66/0xb0 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:2136 svm_invoke_exit_handler+0x110/0x530 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:3395 svm_handle_exit+0x424/0x920 arch/x86/kvm/svm/svm.c:3457 vcpu_enter_guest arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:10959 [inline] vcpu_run+0x2c43/0x5a90 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11062 kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run+0x50f/0x1cf0 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c:11283 kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0x570/0xf00 arch/x86/kvm/../../../virt/kvm/kvm_main.c:4122 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:870 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:856 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x19a/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:856 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x35/0x80 arch/x86/entry/common.c:81 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8

Architecturally, INIT is blocked when the CPU is in SMM, hence KVM's WARN() in kvm_vcpu_reset() to guard against KVM bugs, e.g. to detect improper emulation of INIT. SHUTDOWN on SVM is a weird edge case where KVM needs to do _something_ sane with the VMCB, since it's technically undefined, and INIT is the least awful choice given KVM's ABI.

So, double down on stuffing INIT on SHUTDOWN, and force the vCPU out of SMM to avoid any weirdness (and the WARN).

Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

[sean: massage changelog, make it clear this isn't architectural behavior]

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

CVE-2025-37957 presents notable security risk, a use-after-free vulnerability rated CVSS 7.8. Exploitation could compromise the security of affected deployments. A patch is available and should be applied as part of regular vulnerability management.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Enable ASLR and DEP where available; (2) Implement network segmentation; (3) Monitor for exploitation indicators.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.1%
Top 79% exploitable
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium
NVD CVE.org EPSS Vendor VulDB

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.1%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Small
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact
High

Priority Score

39
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +39
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Use After Free HIGH

Use-after-free vulnerabilities occur when a program continues to access memory through a pointer after that memory has been deallocated.

Memory Corruption HIGH

Memory corruption occurs when a program writes data beyond the boundaries of allocated memory regions or accesses memory in unintended ways, violating the integrity of the process's address space.

Information Disclosure MEDIUM

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

Affected Products (CPE)NVD

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*

Same weakness CWE-416 – Use After Free

View all
CVE-2019-0708 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2015-5119 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2014-0322 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2012-4792 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2009-4324 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2015-0313 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2015-5122 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2013-2551 HIGH POC
8.8

Same technique Information Disclosure

View all
CVE-2019-2725 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2021-34523 CRITICAL POC
9.0
CVE-2013-2251 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2017-5638 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2025-24813 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2025-68613 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2015-1701 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2017-0147 HIGH POC
7.5

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: High
Product Status
Container suse/hpc/warewulf4-x86_64/sle-hpc-node:15.7.20.5.1 Image SLES15-SP7-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP7-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP7-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP7-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Image SLES15-SP7-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP7-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP7-CHOST-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP7-CHOST-BYOS-GDC Image SLES15-SP7-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Image SLES15-SP7-EC2 Image SLES15-SP7-EC2-ECS-HVM Image SLES15-SP7-GCE Image SLES15-SP7-GCE-3P Image SLES15-SP7-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP7-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP7-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP7-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP7-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP7-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP7-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP7-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP7-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container:2.1.3-7.10 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/base-os-container:2.2.0-4.51 Image SL-Micro Image SL-Micro-Azure Image SL-Micro-BYOS-Azure Image SL-Micro-BYOS-EC2 Image SL-Micro-BYOS-GCE Image SL-Micro-EC2 Image SLE-Micro Image SLE-Micro-Azure Image SLE-Micro-BYOS Image SLE-Micro-BYOS-Azure Image SLE-Micro-BYOS-EC2 Image SLE-Micro-BYOS-GCE Image SLE-Micro-EC2 Image SLE-Micro-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-Azure Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-EC2 Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-Azure-llc Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-Azure-ltd Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-Azure Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-EC2 Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-EC2-llc Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-EC2-ltd Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container:2.1.3-6.37 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/kvm-os-container:2.2.0-4.50 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/rt-os-container:2.1.3-7.43 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/rt-os-container:2.2.0-4.57 Affected
Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-GDC Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Image SLES15-SP6-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-EC2-ECS-HVM Image SLES15-SP6-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-SAP Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL-GCE Affected

References

Advisories & patches
PATCH https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a2620f8932fa9fdabc3d78ed6efb004ca409019f PATCH https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d362b21fefcef7eda8f1cd78a5925735d2b3287c PATCH https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e9b28bc65fd3a56755ba503258024608292b4ab1 PATCH https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ec24e62a1dd3540ee696314422040180040c1e4a ADVISORY https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8126-1 ADVISORY https://vuldb.com/vuln/309750 ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:01919/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:01951/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:01964/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:01965/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:01967/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:01972/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:02000/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:20408/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:20413/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:20419/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:20421/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20302/ ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2026:20328/ REF https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dc86a9cd181788f6cc4a2dbcd92ea6473dc2923f

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