Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-38263

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 3.10 – 5.10.240

Published
09 July 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 0.0015 4th 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-2025-38263 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 4th 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: bcache: fix NULL pointer in cache_set_flush() 1. LINE#1794 - LINE#1887 is some codes about function of bch_cache_set_alloc(). 2. LINE#2078 - LINE#2142 is some codes about function of register_cache_set(). 3. register_cache_set()…

more

will call bch_cache_set_alloc() in LINE#2098. 1794 struct cache_set *bch_cache_set_alloc(struct cache_sb *sb) 1795 { ... 1860 if (!(c->devices = kcalloc(c->nr_uuids, sizeof(void *), GFP_KERNEL)) || 1861 mempool_init_slab_pool(&c->search, 32, bch_search_cache) || 1862 mempool_init_kmalloc_pool(&c->bio_meta, 2, 1863 sizeof(struct bbio) + sizeof(struct bio_vec) * 1864 bucket_pages(c)) || 1865 mempool_init_kmalloc_pool(&c->fill_iter, 1, iter_size) || 1866 bioset_init(&c->bio_split, 4, offsetof(struct bbio, bio), 1867 BIOSET_NEED_BVECS|BIOSET_NEED_RESCUER) || 1868 !(c->uuids = alloc_bucket_pages(GFP_KERNEL, c)) || 1869 !(c->moving_gc_wq = alloc_workqueue("bcache_gc", 1870 WQ_MEM_RECLAIM, 0)) || 1871 bch_journal_alloc(c) || 1872 bch_btree_cache_alloc(c) || 1873 bch_open_buckets_alloc(c) || 1874 bch_bset_sort_state_init(&c->sort, ilog2(c->btree_pages))) 1875 goto err; ^^^^^^^^ 1876 ... 1883 return c; 1884 err: 1885 bch_cache_set_unregister(c); ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1886 return NULL; 1887 } ... 2078 static const char *register_cache_set(struct cache *ca) 2079 { ... 2098 c = bch_cache_set_alloc(&ca->sb); 2099 if (!c) 2100 return err; ^^^^^^^^^^ ... 2128 ca->set = c; 2129 ca->set->cache[ca->sb.nr_this_dev] = ca; ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ... 2138 return NULL; 2139 err: 2140 bch_cache_set_unregister(c); 2141 return err; 2142 } (1) If LINE#1860 - LINE#1874 is true, then do 'goto err'(LINE#1875) and call bch_cache_set_unregister()(LINE#1885). (2) As (1) return NULL(LINE#1886), LINE#2098 - LINE#2100 would return. (3) As (2) has returned, LINE#2128 - LINE#2129 would do *not* give the value to c->cache[], it means that c->cache[] is NULL. LINE#1624 - LINE#1665 is some codes about function of cache_set_flush(). As (1), in LINE#1885 call bch_cache_set_unregister() ---> bch_cache_set_stop() ---> closure_queue() -.-> cache_set_flush() (as below LINE#1624) 1624 static void cache_set_flush(struct closure *cl) 1625 { ... 1654 for_each_cache(ca, c, i) 1655 if (ca->alloc_thread) ^^ 1656 kthread_stop(ca->alloc_thread); ... 1665 } (4) In LINE#1655 ca is NULL(see (3)) in cache_set_flush() then the kernel crash occurred as below: [ 846.712887] bcache: register_cache() error drbd6: cannot allocate memory [ 846.713242] bcache: register_bcache() error : failed to register device [ 846.713336] bcache: cache_set_free() Cache set 2f84bdc1-498a-4f2f-98a7-01946bf54287 unregistered [ 846.713768] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000000000009f8 [ 846.714790] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 846.715129] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI [ 846.715472] CPU: 19 PID: 5057 Comm: kworker/19:16 Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE --------- - - 4.18.0-147.5.1.el8_1.5es.3.x86_64 #1 [ 846.716082] Hardware name: ESPAN GI-25212/X11DPL-i, BIOS 2.1 06/15/2018 [ 846.716451] Workqueue: events cache_set_flush [bcache] [ 846.716808] RIP: 0010:cache_set_flush+0xc9/0x1b0 [bcache] [ 846.717155] Code: 00 4c 89 a5 b0 03 00 00 48 8b 85 68 f6 ff ff a8 08 0f 84 88 00 00 00 31 db 66 83 bd 3c f7 ff ff 00 48 8b 85 48 ff ff ff 74 28 <48> 8b b8 f8 09 00 0 ---truncated---

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
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.
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-38328Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39675Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39838Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38362Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38569Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39676Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26771Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38167Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38337Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38147Same product: Debian Debian Linux

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
3.10 — 5.10.240 · 5.11 — 5.15.187 · 5.16 — 6.1.143
debian
debian linux
11.0

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
prevents

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 SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

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

References