Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-38117 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 5th 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-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-19826
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: MGMT: Protect mgmt_pending list with its own lock This uses a mutex to protect from concurrent access of mgmt_pending list which can cause crashes like: ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free…
more
in hci_sock_get_channel+0x60/0x68 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:91 Read of size 2 at addr ffff0000c48885b2 by task syz.4.334/7318 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 7318 Comm: syz.4.334 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7-syzkaller-g187899f4124a #0 PREEMPT Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/12/2025 Call trace: show_stack+0x2c/0x3c arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:466 (C) __dump_stack+0x30/0x40 lib/dump_stack.c:94 dump_stack_lvl+0xd8/0x12c lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description+0xa8/0x254 mm/kasan/report.c:408 print_report+0x68/0x84 mm/kasan/report.c:521 kasan_report+0xb0/0x110 mm/kasan/report.c:634 __asan_report_load2_noabort+0x20/0x2c mm/kasan/report_generic.c:379 hci_sock_get_channel+0x60/0x68 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:91 mgmt_pending_find+0x7c/0x140 net/bluetooth/mgmt_util.c:223 pending_find net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:947 [inline] remove_adv_monitor+0x44/0x1a4 net/bluetooth/mgmt.c:5445 hci_mgmt_cmd+0x780/0xc00 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1712 hci_sock_sendmsg+0x544/0xbb0 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:1832 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:727 [inline] sock_write_iter+0x25c/0x378 net/socket.c:1131 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:591 [inline] vfs_write+0x62c/0x97c fs/read_write.c:684 ksys_write+0x120/0x210 fs/read_write.c:736 __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:747 [inline] __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:744 [inline] __arm64_sys_write+0x7c/0x90 fs/read_write.c:744 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x58/0x17c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:767 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:786 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600 Allocated by task 7037: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x40/0x78 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x44/0x54 mm/kasan/generic.c:562 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0x9c/0xb4 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4327 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0x2fc/0x4c8 mm/slub.c:4339 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:909 [inline] sk_prot_alloc+0xc4/0x1f0 net/core/sock.c:2198 sk_alloc+0x44/0x3ac net/core/sock.c:2254 bt_sock_alloc+0x4c/0x300 net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:148 hci_sock_create+0xa8/0x194 net/bluetooth/hci_sock.c:2202 bt_sock_create+0x14c/0x24c net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:132 __sock_create+0x43c/0x91c net/socket.c:1541 sock_create net/socket.c:1599 [inline] __sys_socket_create net/socket.c:1636 [inline] __sys_socket+0xd4/0x1c0 net/socket.c:1683 __do_sys_socket net/socket.c:1697 [inline] __se_sys_socket net/socket.c:1695 [inline] __arm64_sys_socket+0x7c/0x94 net/socket.c:1695 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x58/0x17c arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:767 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:786 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600 Freed by task 6607: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x40/0x78 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_free_info+0x58/0x70 mm/kasan/generic.c:576 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x68/0x88 mm/kasan/common.c:264 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
- 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V1.4.3
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover use-after-free bugs through dynamic analysis or fuzzing.
Engineering principles can require memory-safe constructs or languages that structurally avoid introducing use-after-free.
Process isolation confines the blast radius of use-after-free memory corruption to a single execution domain.
Memory protection controls limit exploitation impact by blocking unauthorized code execution from dangling pointers.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.
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.
Security testing in development can detect use-after-free bugs before release.
Secure SDLC mandates memory-safety practices that reduce use-after-free defects.
Application security requirements can specify memory-management rules that mitigate use-after-free.
Secure architecture principles include memory-safety design choices that limit use-after-free exposure.
Secure coding standards directly prescribe avoidance of use-after-free patterns.
Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248592 OL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
- V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416