Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-38462

Race Condition in Linux Kernel 5.5 – 5.10.240

Published
25 July 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0011 2th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-38462 is a medium-severity Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CWE-367) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 2th 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 AC-25 (Reference Monitor) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — 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: vsock: Fix transport_{g2h,h2g} TOCTOU vsock_find_cid() and vsock_dev_do_ioctl() may race with module unload. transport_{g2h,h2g} may become NULL after the NULL check. Introduce vsock_transport_local_cid() to protect from a potential null-ptr-deref. KASAN: null-ptr-deref…

more

in range [0x0000000000000118-0x000000000000011f] RIP: 0010:vsock_find_cid+0x47/0x90 Call Trace: __vsock_bind+0x4b2/0x720 vsock_bind+0x90/0xe0 __sys_bind+0x14d/0x1e0 __x64_sys_bind+0x6e/0xc0 do_syscall_64+0x92/0x1c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000118-0x000000000000011f] RIP: 0010:vsock_dev_do_ioctl.isra.0+0x58/0xf0 Call Trace: __x64_sys_ioctl+0x12d/0x190 do_syscall_64+0x92/0x1c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-38461Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38112Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39713Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38352Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26974Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38217Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-22060Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-64091Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-21958Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-53250Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.16 · 5.5 — 5.10.240 · 5.11 — 5.15.189 · 5.16 — 6.1.146
debian
debian linux
11.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2
  • V17.2.6

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

A reference monitor that is always invoked and analyzable structurally eliminates the non-atomic check-then-use pattern underlying TOCTOU.

Access enforcement that performs an atomic check-and-use decision directly stops the window in which a TOCTOU race can be exploited.

Process isolation limits the blast radius of a successful TOCTOU exploitation but does not remove the race itself.

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 directly include coding standards and reviews that prevent TOCTOU race conditions.

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.

none

Reliable, synchronized time across systems narrows the exploitable window in which a resource state can change between a security check and its use.

References