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Linux Kernel CVE-2025-38478

MEDIUM
Use of Uninitialized Resource (CWE-908)
2025-07-28 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Information Disclosure Linux Debian Red Hat Debian Linux 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
vuln.today AI
5.5 MEDIUM

Local access with low privilege is required to open the comedi device; only availability is impacted via potential kernel crash from uninitialized memory access.

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

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

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
Jul 30, 2026 - 08:46 vuln.today
CVE Published
Jul 28, 2025 - 12:15 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5

DescriptionNVD

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

comedi: Fix initialization of data for instructions that write to subdevice

Some Comedi subdevice instruction handlers are known to access instruction data elements beyond the first insn->n elements in some cases. The do_insn_ioctl() and do_insnlist_ioctl() functions allocate at least MIN_SAMPLES (16) data elements to deal with this, but they do not initialize all of that. For Comedi instruction codes that write to the subdevice, the first insn->n data elements are copied from user-space, but the remaining elements are left uninitialized. That could be a problem if the subdevice instruction handler reads the uninitialized data. Ensure that the first MIN_SAMPLES elements are initialized before calling these instruction handlers, filling the uncopied elements with 0. For do_insnlist_ioctl(), the same data buffer elements are used for handling a list of instructions, so ensure the first MIN_SAMPLES elements are initialized for each instruction that writes to the subdevice.

AnalysisAI

Uninitialized kernel memory access in the Linux kernel's comedi data acquisition subsystem allows local low-privilege users to crash the system by submitting crafted ioctl instructions targeting subdevice handlers. The do_insn_ioctl() and do_insnlist_ioctl() functions allocate MIN_SAMPLES (16) data elements but only copy the first insn->n elements from user space for write-type instructions, leaving the remainder uninitialized; certain subdevice handlers read beyond insn->n, triggering undefined behavior that results in denial of service. No public exploit identified at time of analysis; EPSS of 0.16% (5th percentile) reflects very low exploitation probability, consistent with a niche kernel subsystem requiring specialized hardware.

Technical ContextAI

The comedi (Control and Measurement Device Interface) subsystem is a Linux kernel framework providing a standardized API for data acquisition (DAQ) hardware such as analog-to-digital converters, digital I/O cards, and timer/counter peripherals common in scientific and industrial environments. CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource) is the root cause: do_insn_ioctl() and do_insnlist_ioctl() allocate a buffer of at least MIN_SAMPLES (16) data elements to accommodate subdevice handler over-reads but only populate the first insn->n elements from user-supplied data for write-to-subdevice instructions. Subdevice instruction handlers that access elements beyond the insn->n boundary then read uninitialized kernel memory, producing unpredictable results up to and including kernel crashes. The CPE data confirms the affected product is cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel spanning multiple stable branches and 6.16 release candidates (rc1 through rc3). The fix ensures the full MIN_SAMPLES buffer is zero-initialized before any handler invocation, and the do_insnlist_ioctl() path reinitializes the shared buffer for each instruction in the list.

RemediationAI

Upstream fixes are available as patches applied to multiple stable kernel branches; the commits are publicly accessible on kernel.org stable git (hashes: 020eed5681d0, 13e4d9038a1e, 46d8c744136c, 673ee92bd2d3, 6f38c6380c3b, c42116dc70af, d3436638738a, fe8713fb4e4e). Linux distribution maintainers should apply the relevant stable-branch patch to their packaged kernels; Debian LTS users should consult the October 2025 advisories at lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10. No exact patched release version number is independently confirmed from the available data, as references point to individual commits rather than tagged kernel releases - verify the fix is included in your distribution's current kernel package. As a compensating control where immediate patching is not feasible, restrict access permissions on comedi device files (typically /dev/comedi*) to authorized users only, or unload the comedi kernel modules (modprobe -r comedi) if DAQ hardware is not actively required; note that either measure will disable comedi-dependent data acquisition functionality, which may be operationally unacceptable in scientific or industrial environments.

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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-2025-38478 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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