Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-38313

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 4.13 – 5.4.295

Published
10 July 2025
Modified
17 June 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 0.0016 5th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-38313 is a high-severity Double Free (CWE-415) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, 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-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: bus: fsl-mc: fix double-free on mc_dev The blamed commit tried to simplify how the deallocations are done but, in the process, introduced a double-free on the mc_dev variable. In case…

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the MC device is a DPRC, a new mc_bus is allocated and the mc_dev variable is just a reference to one of its fields. In this circumstance, on the error path only the mc_bus should be freed. This commit introduces back the following checkpatch warning which is a false-positive. WARNING: kfree(NULL) is safe and this check is probably not required + if (mc_bus) + kfree(mc_bus);

CWE(s)

Related Threats

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
4.13 — 5.4.295 · 5.5 — 5.10.239 · 5.11 — 5.15.186
debian
debian linux
11.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation
  • SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Rigorous developer testing with memory-safety tools (ASAN, fuzzers, static analysis) directly detects double-free conditions like the mc_bus/mc_dev error path in fsl-mc.

prevent

Mandates use of secure development standards, memory-safe allocation patterns, and automated checkers that would have prevented the flawed simplification of the DPRC deallocation logic.

prevent

Memory-protection mechanisms (guard pages, allocator hardening) can block or contain exploitation of the double-free once the kernel bug is triggered.

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 full match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent double-free errors via static analysis, safe memory APIs, and testing.

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 double-free conditions before release.

prevents

Secure development life cycle includes memory-safety practices that can prevent double-free bugs.

prevents

Application security requirements can mandate memory-safety rules that reduce double-free risk.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles can prescribe safe memory-management patterns.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly address proper use of free() and similar functions.

References