Security Resilience

CVE-2025-37876

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 6.8 – 6.12.26

Published
09 May 2025
Modified
15 October 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0026 17th percentile
Risk Priority 50 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-37876 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 17th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Only create /proc/fs/netfs with CONFIG_PROC_FS When testing a special config: CONFIG_NETFS_SUPPORTS=y CONFIG_PROC_FS=n The system crashes with something like: [ 3.766197] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 3.766484] kernel BUG at…

more

mm/mempool.c:560! [ 3.766789] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 3.767123] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W [ 3.767777] Tainted: [W]=WARN [ 3.767968] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), [ 3.768523] RIP: 0010:mempool_alloc_slab.cold+0x17/0x19 [ 3.768847] Code: 50 fe ff 58 5b 5d 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f e9 93 95 13 00 [ 3.769977] RSP: 0018:ffffc90000013998 EFLAGS: 00010286 [ 3.770315] RAX: 000000000000002f RBX: ffff888100ba8640 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 3.770749] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000003 RDI: 00000000ffffffff [ 3.771217] RBP: 0000000000092880 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffc90000013828 [ 3.771664] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 00000000ffffffea R12: 0000000000092cc0 [ 3.772117] R13: 0000000000000400 R14: ffff8881004b1620 R15: ffffea0004ef7e40 [ 3.772554] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8881b5f3c000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 3.773061] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 3.773443] CR2: ffffffff830901b4 CR3: 0000000004296001 CR4: 0000000000770ef0 [ 3.773884] PKRU: 55555554 [ 3.774058] Call Trace: [ 3.774232] <TASK> [ 3.774371] mempool_alloc_noprof+0x6a/0x190 [ 3.774649] ? _printk+0x57/0x80 [ 3.774862] netfs_alloc_request+0x85/0x2ce [ 3.775147] netfs_readahead+0x28/0x170 [ 3.775395] read_pages+0x6c/0x350 [ 3.775623] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.775928] page_cache_ra_unbounded+0x1bd/0x2a0 [ 3.776247] filemap_get_pages+0x139/0x970 [ 3.776510] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.776820] filemap_read+0xf9/0x580 [ 3.777054] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.777368] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.777674] ? find_held_lock+0x32/0x90 [ 3.777929] ? netfs_start_io_read+0x19/0x70 [ 3.778221] ? netfs_start_io_read+0x19/0x70 [ 3.778489] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.778800] ? lock_acquired+0x1e6/0x450 [ 3.779054] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.779379] netfs_buffered_read_iter+0x57/0x80 [ 3.779670] __kernel_read+0x158/0x2c0 [ 3.779927] bprm_execve+0x300/0x7a0 [ 3.780185] kernel_execve+0x10c/0x140 [ 3.780423] ? __pfx_kernel_init+0x10/0x10 [ 3.780690] kernel_init+0xd5/0x150 [ 3.780910] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50 [ 3.781156] ? __pfx_kernel_init+0x10/0x10 [ 3.781414] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 3.781677] </TASK> [ 3.781823] Modules linked in: [ 3.782065] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- This is caused by the following error path in netfs_init(): if (!proc_mkdir("fs/netfs", NULL)) goto error_proc; Fix this by adding ifdef in netfs_main(), so that /proc/fs/netfs is only created with CONFIG_PROC_FS.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1687 Exploitation for Defense Impairment Defense Impairment
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities in security software, infrastructure, or defensive components to degrade, disable, or otherwise continue to impair their ability to prevent, detect, or respond to malicious activity.
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.15 · 6.8 — 6.12.26 · 6.13 — 6.14.5

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.

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
blocks

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

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.

finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References