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Linux Kernel CVE-2025-38364

MEDIUM
NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476)
2025-07-25 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Denial Of Service Null Pointer Dereference Linux Debian Linux Red Hat Suse
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Severity by source

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

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
May 12, 2026 - 13:30 vuln.today
CVE Published
Jul 25, 2025 - 13:15 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5

DescriptionCVE.org

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

maple_tree: fix MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag in mas_preallocate()

Temporarily clear the preallocation flag when explicitly requesting allocations. Pre-existing allocations are already counted against the request through mas_node_count_gfp(), but the allocations will not happen if the MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag is set. This flag is meant to avoid re-allocating in bulk allocation mode, and to detect issues with preallocation calculations.

The MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag should also always be set on zero allocations so that detection of underflow allocations will print a WARN_ON() during consumption.

User visible effect of this flaw is a WARN_ON() followed by a null pointer dereference when subsequent requests for larger number of nodes is ignored, such as the vma merge retry in mmap_region() caused by drivers altering the vma flags (which happens in v6.6, at least)

AnalysisAI

Null pointer dereference in Linux kernel maple_tree memory allocator causes denial of service when the MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag is incorrectly managed during node allocation requests. Local authenticated attackers can trigger this via memory operations that request large numbers of nodes, such as VMA merges during mmap_region() calls, leading to WARN_ON() messages followed by kernel crash. Affects Linux kernel versions including 6.16 release candidates and is confirmed patched in stable branches.

Technical ContextAI

The maple_tree is a modern data structure in the Linux kernel used for efficient virtual memory area (VMA) management and other range-based storage. The vulnerability lies in the mas_preallocate() function, which manages pre-allocation of maple tree nodes to avoid memory allocation failures during bulk operations. The MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag is intended to prevent re-allocation during bulk allocation mode and detect preallocation calculation errors. The bug occurs because the flag is not properly cleared when explicitly requesting allocations, causing mas_node_count_gfp() to count pre-existing allocations but the actual allocation to be skipped due to the flag being set. This results in a resource exhaustion condition where expected memory is not allocated, leading to null pointer dereference (CWE-476) when the memory is subsequently accessed. The issue is particularly triggered by driver code that alters VMA flags during mmap operations, causing VMA merge retry logic to request additional nodes.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch available via Linux kernel stable branches. Apply kernel updates corresponding to the git commits listed in references: users should upgrade to kernel versions containing commits 9e32f4700867abbd5d19abfcf698dbd0d2ce36a4 or later in their respective stable branch. For Debian Linux 11.0, apply security updates announced in the Debian LTS security advisory (https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html). Siemens customers should consult the product security notice (https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-082556.html) for their specific affected products. As a temporary mitigation pending kernel upgrade, administrators can reduce the likelihood of triggering the vulnerability by minimizing driver-initiated VMA flag alterations and avoiding workloads that perform intensive memory operations requiring large node allocations; however, this does not eliminate the risk for all usage patterns. Kernel reboot is required to activate patched versions.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Medium
Product Status
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container:2.1.3-7.44 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/base-os-container:2.2.1-5.27 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:2.1.3-6.67 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/kvm-os-container:2.2.1-5.29 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/rt-os-container:2.1.3-7.76 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/rt-os-container:2.2.1-5.14 Affected
Image SLES-Azure-3P Image SLES-Azure-Basic Image SLES-Azure-Standard Image SLES-BYOS-Azure Image SLES-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES-BYOS-GCE Image SLES-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Image SLES-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Image SLES-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES-CHOST-BYOS-GCE Image SLES-CHOST-BYOS-GDC Image SLES-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Image SLES-EC2 Image SLES-GCE Image SLES-GCE-3P Image SLES-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Image SLES-SAP-Azure Image SLES-SAP-Azure-3P Image SLES-SAP-BYOS-Azure Image SLES-SAP-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES-SAP-BYOS-GCE Image SLES-SAP-EC2 Image SLES-SAP-GCE Image SLES-SAP-GCE-3P Affected

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CVE-2025-38364 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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