VulnerabilityPublished 10 Jul 2025Updated 8 Oct 2026

CVE-2025-38299: Linux kernel · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · fixed in 6.8.0-1046.49~22.04.1 : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 7% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 6.8.0-1046.49~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1051.57~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1046.53~22.04.1 +33

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

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 10 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by 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 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-p5pm-mcf8-37xq

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Patches and advisories

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Ubuntu 25.10linux-azure-fde`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-fde?arch=source&distro=questing`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1003.3 – 6.17.0-1017.17 10 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-100.100	Fixed in 6.8.0-100.100
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-aws`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1046.49	Fixed in 6.8.0-1046.49
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-aws-6.14`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws-6.14?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.14.0-1013.13~24.04.1	Fixed in 6.14.0-1013.13~24.04.1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1046.52	Fixed in 6.8.0-1046.52
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure-6.11`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-6.11?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.11.0-1008.8~24.04.1 – 6.11.0-1018.18~24.04.1 7 affected builds	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ASoC: mediatek: mt8195: Set ETDM1/2 IN/OUT to COMP_DUMMY() ETDM2_IN_BE and ETDM1_OUT_BE are defined as COMP_EMPTY(), in the case the codec dai_name will be null. Avoid a crash if the device tree is not assigning a codec to these links. [ 1.179936] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 [ 1.181065] Mem abort info: [ 1.181420] ESR = 0x0000000096000004 [ 1.181892] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 1.182576] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 1.182964] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 1.183367] FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault [ 1.183983] Data abort info: [ 1.184406] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 1.185097] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 1.185766] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 1.186439] [0000000000000000] user address but active_mm is swapper [ 1.187239] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1] PREEMPT SMP [ 1.188029] Modules linked in: [ 1.188420] CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 70 Comm: kworker/u32:1 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc4-next-20250226+ #85 [ 1.189515] Hardware name: Radxa NIO 12L (DT) [ 1.190065] Workqueue: events_unbound deferred_probe_work_func [ 1.190808] pstate: 40400009 (nZcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 1.191683] pc : __pi_strcmp+0x24/0x140 [ 1.192170] lr : mt8195_mt6359_soc_card_probe+0x224/0x7b0 [ 1.192854] sp : ffff800083473970 [ 1.193271] x29: ffff800083473a10 x28: 0000000000001008 x27: 0000000000000002 [ 1.194168] x26: ffff800082408960 x25: ffff800082417db0 x24: ffff800082417d88 [ 1.195065] x23: 000000000000001e x22: ffff800082dbf480 x21: ffff800082dc07b8 [ 1.195961] x20: 0000000000000000 x19: 0000000000000013 x18: 00000000ffffffff [ 1.196858] x17: 000000040044ffff x16: 005000f2b5503510 x15: 0000000000000006 [ 1.197755] x14: ffff800082407af0 x13: 6e6f69737265766e x12: 692d6b636f6c6374 [ 1.198651] x11: 0000000000000002 x10: ffff80008240b920 x9 : 0000000000000018 [ 1.199547] x8 : 0101010101010101 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.200443] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 8080808080000000 x3 : 303933383978616d [ 1.201339] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff80008240b920 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.202236] Call trace: [ 1.202545] __pi_strcmp+0x24/0x140 (P) [ 1.203029] mtk_soundcard_common_probe+0x3bc/0x5b8 [ 1.203644] platform_probe+0x70/0xe8 [ 1.204106] really_probe+0xc8/0x3a0 [ 1.204556] __driver_probe_device+0x84/0x160 [ 1.205104] driver_probe_device+0x44/0x130 [ 1.205630] __device_attach_driver+0xc4/0x170 [ 1.206189] bus_for_each_drv+0x8c/0xf8 [ 1.206672] __device_attach+0xa8/0x1c8 [ 1.207155] device_initial_probe+0x1c/0x30 [ 1.207681] bus_probe_device+0xb0/0xc0 [ 1.208165] deferred_probe_work_func+0xa4/0x100 [ 1.208747] process_one_work+0x158/0x3e0 [ 1.209254] worker_thread+0x2c4/0x3e8 [ 1.209727] kthread+0x134/0x1f0 [ 1.210136] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 1.210589] Code: 54000401 b50002c6 d503201f f86a6803 (f8408402) [ 1.211355] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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