Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-37961

Linux Kernel 3.10.91 – 3.11

Published
20 May 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0018 7th percentile
Risk Priority 41 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-2025-37961 is a medium-severity Use of Uninitialized Resource (CWE-908) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 7th 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.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvs: fix uninit-value for saddr in do_output_route4 syzbot reports for uninit-value for the saddr argument [1]. commit 4754957f04f5 ("ipvs: do not use random local source address for tunnels") already implies…

more

that the input value of saddr should be ignored but the code is still reading it which can prevent to connect the route. Fix it by changing the argument to ret_saddr. [1] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in do_output_route4+0x42c/0x4d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:147 do_output_route4+0x42c/0x4d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:147 __ip_vs_get_out_rt+0x403/0x21d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:330 ip_vs_tunnel_xmit+0x205/0x2380 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:1136 ip_vs_in_hook+0x1aa5/0x35b0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_core.c:2063 nf_hook_entry_hookfn include/linux/netfilter.h:154 [inline] nf_hook_slow+0xf7/0x400 net/netfilter/core.c:626 nf_hook include/linux/netfilter.h:269 [inline] __ip_local_out+0x758/0x7e0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:118 ip_local_out net/ipv4/ip_output.c:127 [inline] ip_send_skb+0x6a/0x3c0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:1501 udp_send_skb+0xfda/0x1b70 net/ipv4/udp.c:1195 udp_sendmsg+0x2fe3/0x33c0 net/ipv4/udp.c:1483 inet_sendmsg+0x1fc/0x280 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:851 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x267/0x380 net/socket.c:727 ____sys_sendmsg+0x91b/0xda0 net/socket.c:2566 ___sys_sendmsg+0x28d/0x3c0 net/socket.c:2620 __sys_sendmmsg+0x41d/0x880 net/socket.c:2702 __compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:360 [inline] __do_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:367 [inline] __se_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:364 [inline] __ia32_compat_sys_sendmmsg+0xc8/0x140 net/compat.c:364 ia32_sys_call+0x3ffa/0x41f0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_32.h:346 do_syscall_32_irqs_on arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:83 [inline] __do_fast_syscall_32+0xb0/0x110 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:306 do_fast_syscall_32+0x38/0x80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:331 do_SYSENTER_32+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:369 entry_SYSENTER_compat_after_hwframe+0x84/0x8e Uninit was created at: slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4167 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4210 [inline] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x8fa/0xe00 mm/slub.c:4367 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:905 [inline] ip_vs_dest_dst_alloc net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:61 [inline] __ip_vs_get_out_rt+0x35d/0x21d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:323 ip_vs_tunnel_xmit+0x205/0x2380 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:1136 ip_vs_in_hook+0x1aa5/0x35b0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_core.c:2063 nf_hook_entry_hookfn include/linux/netfilter.h:154 [inline] nf_hook_slow+0xf7/0x400 net/netfilter/core.c:626 nf_hook include/linux/netfilter.h:269 [inline] __ip_local_out+0x758/0x7e0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:118 ip_local_out net/ipv4/ip_output.c:127 [inline] ip_send_skb+0x6a/0x3c0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:1501 udp_send_skb+0xfda/0x1b70 net/ipv4/udp.c:1195 udp_sendmsg+0x2fe3/0x33c0 net/ipv4/udp.c:1483 inet_sendmsg+0x1fc/0x280 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:851 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x267/0x380 net/socket.c:727 ____sys_sendmsg+0x91b/0xda0 net/socket.c:2566 ___sys_sendmsg+0x28d/0x3c0 net/socket.c:2620 __sys_sendmmsg+0x41d/0x880 net/socket.c:2702 __compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:360 [inline] __do_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:367 [inline] __se_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:364 [inline] __ia32_compat_sys_sendmmsg+0xc8/0x140 net/compat.c:364 ia32_sys_call+0x3ffa/0x41f0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_32.h:346 do_syscall_32_irqs_on arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:83 [inline] __do_fast_syscall_32+0xb0/0x110 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:306 do_fast_syscall_32+0x38/0x80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:331 do_SYSENTER_32+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:369 entry_SYSENTER_compat_after_hwframe+0x84/0x8e CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 22408 Comm: syz.4.5165 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc3-syzkaller-00019-gbc3372351d0c #0 PREEMPT(undef) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engi ---truncated---

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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CVE-2024-35849Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39812Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-37865Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38441Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26863Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38225Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38644Same product: Debian Debian Linux

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
4.2, 6.15 · 3.10.91 — 3.11 · 3.12.50 — 3.13 · 3.14.55 — 3.15
debian
debian linux
11.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) can find uses of uninitialized resources after they are coded.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate initialization checks and safe patterns that stop the weakness from being introduced.

Engineering principles can require explicit resource initialization before use, structurally avoiding uninitialized access.

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 activities such as static analysis and code review directly prevent use of uninitialized resources while also addressing many other weaknesses.

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 in development and acceptance can detect uninitialized resource usage through dynamic analysis and fuzzing.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates initialization checks and static analysis that can catch uninitialized resource use.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify mandatory initialization of variables and resources before use.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles include defensive coding practices that prevent use of uninitialized memory or objects.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require explicit initialization of all variables and resources, substantially mitigating CWE-908.

References