CVE-2025-38441
Linux Kernel 5.15.157 – 5.15.189
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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-2025-38441 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 6th 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
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-22700
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfilter: flowtable: account for Ethernet header in nf_flow_pppoe_proto() syzbot found a potential access to uninit-value in nf_flow_pppoe_proto() Blamed commit forgot the Ethernet header. BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in nf_flow_offload_inet_hook+0x7e4/0x940 net/netfilter/nf_flow_table_inet.c:27 nf_flow_offload_inet_hook+0x7e4/0x940…
more
net/netfilter/nf_flow_table_inet.c:27 nf_hook_entry_hookfn include/linux/netfilter.h:157 [inline] nf_hook_slow+0xe1/0x3d0 net/netfilter/core.c:623 nf_hook_ingress include/linux/netfilter_netdev.h:34 [inline] nf_ingress net/core/dev.c:5742 [inline] __netif_receive_skb_core+0x4aff/0x70c0 net/core/dev.c:5837 __netif_receive_skb_one_core net/core/dev.c:5975 [inline] __netif_receive_skb+0xcc/0xac0 net/core/dev.c:6090 netif_receive_skb_internal net/core/dev.c:6176 [inline] netif_receive_skb+0x57/0x630 net/core/dev.c:6235 tun_rx_batched+0x1df/0x980 drivers/net/tun.c:1485 tun_get_user+0x4ee0/0x6b40 drivers/net/tun.c:1938 tun_chr_write_iter+0x3e9/0x5c0 drivers/net/tun.c:1984 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:593 [inline] vfs_write+0xb4b/0x1580 fs/read_write.c:686 ksys_write fs/read_write.c:738 [inline] __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:749 [inline]
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
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.
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.
Security testing in development and acceptance can detect uninitialized resource usage through dynamic analysis and fuzzing.
Secure development life cycle mandates initialization checks and static analysis that can catch uninitialized resource use.
Application security requirements can specify mandatory initialization of variables and resources before use.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include defensive coding practices that prevent use of uninitialized memory or objects.
Secure coding standards directly require explicit initialization of all variables and resources, substantially mitigating CWE-908.