Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-38476 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) 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 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SC-39 (Process Isolation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-22886
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: rpl: Fix use-after-free in rpl_do_srh_inline(). Running lwt_dst_cache_ref_loop.sh in selftest with KASAN triggers the splat below [0]. rpl_do_srh_inline() fetches ipv6_hdr(skb) and accesses it after skb_cow_head(), which is illegal as the header…
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could be freed then. Let's fix it by making oldhdr to a local struct instead of a pointer. [0]: [root@fedora net]# ./lwt_dst_cache_ref_loop.sh ... TEST: rpl (input) [ 57.631529] ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in rpl_do_srh_inline.isra.0 (net/ipv6/rpl_iptunnel.c:174) Read of size 40 at addr ffff888122bf96d8 by task ping6/1543 CPU: 50 UID: 0 PID: 1543 Comm: ping6 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc5-01302-gfadd1e6231b1 #23 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <IRQ> dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:122) print_report (mm/kasan/report.c:409 mm/kasan/report.c:521) kasan_report (mm/kasan/report.c:221 mm/kasan/report.c:636) kasan_check_range (mm/kasan/generic.c:175 (discriminator 1) mm/kasan/generic.c:189 (discriminator 1)) __asan_memmove (mm/kasan/shadow.c:94 (discriminator 2)) rpl_do_srh_inline.isra.0 (net/ipv6/rpl_iptunnel.c:174) rpl_input (net/ipv6/rpl_iptunnel.c:201 net/ipv6/rpl_iptunnel.c:282) lwtunnel_input (net/core/lwtunnel.c:459) ipv6_rcv (./include/net/dst.h:471 (discriminator 1) ./include/net/dst.h:469 (discriminator 1) net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:79 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/netfilter.h:317 (discriminator 1) ./include/linux/netfilter.h:311 (discriminator 1) net/ipv6/ip6_input.c:311 (discriminator 1)) __netif_receive_skb_one_core (net/core/dev.c:5967) process_backlog (./include/linux/rcupdate.h:869 net/core/dev.c:6440) __napi_poll.constprop.0 (net/core/dev.c:7452) net_rx_action (net/core/dev.c:7518 net/core/dev.c:7643) handle_softirqs (kernel/softirq.c:579) do_softirq (kernel/softirq.c:480 (discriminator 20)) </IRQ> <TASK> __local_bh_enable_ip (kernel/softirq.c:407) __dev_queue_xmit (net/core/dev.c:4740) ip6_finish_output2 (./include/linux/netdevice.h:3358 ./include/net/neighbour.h:526 ./include/net/neighbour.h:540 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:141) ip6_finish_output (net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:215 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:226) ip6_output (./include/linux/netfilter.h:306 net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:248) ip6_send_skb (net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:1983) rawv6_sendmsg (net/ipv6/raw.c:588 net/ipv6/raw.c:918) __sys_sendto (net/socket.c:714 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:729 (discriminator 1) net/socket.c:2228 (discriminator 1)) __x64_sys_sendto (net/socket.c:2231) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 (discriminator 1) arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 (discriminator 1)) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130) RIP: 0033:0x7f68cffb2a06 Code: 5d e8 41 8b 93 08 03 00 00 59 5e 48 83 f8 fc 75 19 83 e2 39 83 fa 08 75 11 e8 26 ff ff ff 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 8b 45 10 0f 05 <48> 8b 5d f8 c9 c3 0f 1f 40 00 f3 0f 1e fa 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 08 RSP: 002b:00007ffefb7c53d0 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000564cd69f10a0 RCX: 00007f68cffb2a06 RDX: 0000000000000040 RSI: 0000564cd69f10a4 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007ffefb7c53f0 R08: 0000564cd6a032ac R09: 000000000000001c R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000564cd69f10a4 R13: 0000000000000040 R14: 00007ffefb7c66e0 R15: 0000564cd69f10a0 </TASK> Allocated by task 1543: kasan_save_stack (mm/kasan/common.c:48) kasan_save_track (mm/kasan/common.c:60 (discriminator 1) mm/kasan/common.c:69 (discriminator 1)) __kasan_slab_alloc (mm/kasan/common.c:319 mm/kasan/common.c:345) kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof (./include/linux/kasan.h:250 mm/slub.c:4148 mm/slub.c:4197 mm/slub.c:4249) kmalloc_reserve (net/core/skbuff.c:581 (discriminator 88)) __alloc_skb (net/core/skbuff.c:669) __ip6_append_data (net/ipv6/ip6_output.c:1672 (discriminator 1)) ip6_ ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly implements memory protection safeguards that block use-after-free accesses such as the ipv6_hdr(skb) reference after skb_cow_head() in rpl_do_srh_inline().
Requires integrity verification of software/firmware that would detect the corrupted memory state or unauthorized modification resulting from the RPL use-after-free.
Enforces process isolation boundaries that limit the blast radius of a kernel memory corruption bug in the IPv6 RPL input path.
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.