Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-22083

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 3.9.1 – 6.6.87

Published
16 April 2025
Modified
14 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0020 10th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-22083 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 10th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-16 (Memory Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vhost-scsi: Fix handling of multiple calls to vhost_scsi_set_endpoint If vhost_scsi_set_endpoint is called multiple times without a vhost_scsi_clear_endpoint between them, we can hit multiple bugs found by Haoran Zhang: 1. Use-after-free…

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when no tpgs are found: This fixes a use after free that occurs when vhost_scsi_set_endpoint is called more than once and calls after the first call do not find any tpgs to add to the vs_tpg. When vhost_scsi_set_endpoint first finds tpgs to add to the vs_tpg array match=true, so we will do: vhost_vq_set_backend(vq, vs_tpg); ... kfree(vs->vs_tpg); vs->vs_tpg = vs_tpg; If vhost_scsi_set_endpoint is called again and no tpgs are found match=false so we skip the vhost_vq_set_backend call leaving the pointer to the vs_tpg we then free via: kfree(vs->vs_tpg); vs->vs_tpg = vs_tpg; If a scsi request is then sent we do: vhost_scsi_handle_vq -> vhost_scsi_get_req -> vhost_vq_get_backend which sees the vs_tpg we just did a kfree on. 2. Tpg dir removal hang: This patch fixes an issue where we cannot remove a LIO/target layer tpg (and structs above it like the target) dir due to the refcount dropping to -1. The problem is that if vhost_scsi_set_endpoint detects a tpg is already in the vs->vs_tpg array or if the tpg has been removed so target_depend_item fails, the undepend goto handler will do target_undepend_item on all tpgs in the vs_tpg array dropping their refcount to 0. At this time vs_tpg contains both the tpgs we have added in the current vhost_scsi_set_endpoint call as well as tpgs we added in previous calls which are also in vs->vs_tpg. Later, when vhost_scsi_clear_endpoint runs it will do target_undepend_item on all the tpgs in the vs->vs_tpg which will drop their refcount to -1. Userspace will then not be able to remove the tpg and will hang when it tries to do rmdir on the tpg dir. 3. Tpg leak: This fixes a bug where we can leak tpgs and cause them to be un-removable because the target name is overwritten when vhost_scsi_set_endpoint is called multiple times but with different target names. The bug occurs if a user has called VHOST_SCSI_SET_ENDPOINT and setup a vhost-scsi device to target/tpg mapping, then calls VHOST_SCSI_SET_ENDPOINT again with a new target name that has tpgs we haven't seen before (target1 has tpg1 but target2 has tpg2). When this happens we don't teardown the old target tpg mapping and just overwrite the target name and the vs->vs_tpg array. Later when we do vhost_scsi_clear_endpoint, we are passed in either target1 or target2's name and we will only match that target's tpgs when we loop over the vs->vs_tpg. We will then return from the function without doing target_undepend_item on the tpgs. Because of all these bugs, it looks like being able to call vhost_scsi_set_endpoint multiple times was never supported. The major user, QEMU, already has checks to prevent this use case. So to fix the issues, this patch prevents vhost_scsi_set_endpoint from being called if it's already successfully added tpgs. To add, remove or change the tpg config or target name, you must do a vhost_scsi_clear_endpoint first.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
3.9 · 3.9.1 — 6.6.87 · 6.7 — 6.12.23 · 6.13 — 6.13.11

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly blocks the use-after-free on the freed vs_tpg pointer dereferenced via vhost_vq_get_backend after duplicate vhost_scsi_set_endpoint calls.

prevent

Enforces validation of repeated vhost_scsi_set_endpoint invocations to reject or safely handle the case of missing intervening vhost_scsi_clear_endpoint.

prevent

Enforces that vhost_vq_set_backend may only be performed under valid, non-freed tpg conditions, preventing the dangling backend pointer left by the flawed endpoint logic.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

detects

Security testing in development can detect use-after-free bugs before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates memory-safety practices that reduce use-after-free defects.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-management rules that mitigate use-after-free.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety design choices that limit use-after-free exposure.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prescribe avoidance of use-after-free patterns.

prevents

Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.

References