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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-37996: Linux kernel · KVM: arm64: Fix uninitialized memcache pointer in user_mem_abort()

Source GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2025-37996· High

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 High.

Data as of 13 Nov 2026, 18:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
5.5High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 29 May 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 13 Nov 2026.

What to do

AI-suggested

The vulnerability has been resolved by ensuring the memcache pointer is always initialized in user_mem_abort(). Although no explicit patch links are provided, the fix is committed in the Linux kernel source. Users should update to a Linux kernel version that includes this fix once available. Since this is not a cloud service, manual patching is required.

Description

CVE-2025-37996 is a medium-severity vulnerability in the Linux kernel's KVM subsystem for arm64 architectures. It involves an uninitialized memcache pointer in the user_mem_abort() function, which can lead to a failure in stage-2 memory allocation. The issue arises from a code change that made memcache initialization conditional, leaving a code path where it is used uninitialized. This flaw affects the kernel's memory management during virtualization and can cause availability impact due to allocation failures.

References

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