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Linux Kernel CVE-2025-38401

HIGH
Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787)
2025-07-25 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Buffer Overflow Linux Memory Corruption Debian Red Hat Debian Linux Suse
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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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
vuln.today AI
7.8 HIGH

Local unprivileged user triggering the DMA error path (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L) causes kernel memory corruption with full C/I/A impact and no scope change.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
6.1 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

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
Analysis Generated
Jul 30, 2026 - 08:23 vuln.today
CVE Published
Jul 25, 2025 - 13:15 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionNVD

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

mtk-sd: Prevent memory corruption from DMA map failure

If msdc_prepare_data() fails to map the DMA region, the request is not prepared for data receiving, but msdc_start_data() proceeds the DMA with previous setting. Since this will lead a memory corruption, we have to stop the request operation soon after the msdc_prepare_data() fails to prepare it.

AnalysisAI

Local privilege escalation and memory corruption in the Linux kernel's MediaTek MMC/SD host controller driver (mtk-sd) occurs because msdc_start_data() proceeds with a DMA transfer using stale settings after msdc_prepare_data() fails to map the DMA region. An attacker with local access to a system using MediaTek SD/MMC hardware can trigger an out-of-bounds write (CWE-787) leading to kernel memory corruption with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. This is a code-quality/robustness fix in mainline kernel development (regression affects 6.16 release candidates and backported stable branches); there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and EPSS exploitation probability is very low (0.17%, 7th percentile).

Technical ContextAI

The affected component is the mtk-sd driver (drivers/mmc/host/mtk-sd.c), the kernel driver for MediaTek SoC SD/MMC/eMMC host controllers, which uses DMA to transfer block-device data between the controller and host memory. The root cause is CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write): in the request path, msdc_prepare_data() sets up the DMA scatter-gather mapping, but if dma_map_sg() fails, the request is left un-prepared. The subsequent msdc_start_data() nevertheless kicks off the DMA engine using the previous/stale descriptor configuration, so the controller writes to or reads from memory that was never validly mapped for this transfer, corrupting kernel memory. The CPE data scopes this to cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel across multiple version ranges, with 6.16:rc1/rc2/rc3 explicitly enumerated, indicating a bug present in current development and stable trees rather than a single tagged release.

RemediationAI

Apply the vendor-released patch: update to a Linux kernel build that includes the mtk-sd fix, which stops the request immediately when msdc_prepare_data() fails rather than proceeding with msdc_start_data(). The fix is available as eight backported stable commits on git.kernel.org (e.g., https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/63e8953f16acdcb23e2d4dd8a566d3c34df3e200), so update to the latest stable/LTS point release for your series; Debian users should install the fixed kernel packages per the October 2025 Debian LTS announcements (https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html and .../msg00008.html). No exact tagged mainline release version is provided in the input, so confirm the specific patched point release with your distribution before deploying. As a compensating control on systems that do not require MediaTek SD/MMC functionality, unload or blacklist the mtk_sd kernel module (blacklist mtk_sd) to remove the vulnerable code path entirely - the trade-off is loss of SD/eMMC storage access on that controller, which is unacceptable on devices that boot or store data from that media, so this is only viable where the controller is unused.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
Container suse/hpc/warewulf4-x86_64/sle-hpc-node:15.6.17.8.103 Image SLES15-SP6 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
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-EC2-ECS 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

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CVE-2025-38401 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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