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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-38549: Linux kernel · Memory Leak

Source GCVE Database

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 13 Nov 2026, 20:07 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
5.5Medium
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 16 Aug 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

A fix has been implemented in the Linux kernel by adding a .free callback in efivarfs_context_ops to properly free allocated efivarfs_fs_info structures on error paths. Users should apply the updated kernel version containing this fix once available. No additional mitigation steps are indicated.

Description

CVE-2025-38549 addresses a memory leak vulnerability in the Linux kernel's efivarfs filesystem. The issue occurs when the efivarfs_fs_info structure allocated during fs_context initialization is not freed if the fs_context is released before the fill_super function is called, such as on error paths. This leads to a memory leak because the ownership of the structure never transfers to the superblock, which normally handles its cleanup. The vulnerability has been fixed by implementing a .free callback in efivarfs_context_ops to ensure proper freeing of allocated memory during fs_context teardown.

References

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