Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-38578 is a medium-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, 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 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and CM-7 (Least Functionality) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-26098
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: fix to avoid UAF in f2fs_sync_inode_meta() syzbot reported an UAF issue as below: [1] [2] [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/text?tag=CrashReport&x=16594c60580000 ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __list_del_entry_valid+0xa6/0x130 lib/list_debug.c:62 Read of size 8 at…
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addr ffff888100567dc8 by task kworker/u4:0/8 CPU: 1 PID: 8 Comm: kworker/u4:0 Tainted: G W 6.1.129-syzkaller-00017-g642656a36791 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/12/2025 Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-7:0) Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x151/0x1b7 lib/dump_stack.c:106 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:316 [inline] print_report+0x158/0x4e0 mm/kasan/report.c:427 kasan_report+0x13c/0x170 mm/kasan/report.c:531 __asan_report_load8_noabort+0x14/0x20 mm/kasan/report_generic.c:351 __list_del_entry_valid+0xa6/0x130 lib/list_debug.c:62 __list_del_entry include/linux/list.h:134 [inline] list_del_init include/linux/list.h:206 [inline] f2fs_inode_synced+0x100/0x2e0 fs/f2fs/super.c:1553 f2fs_update_inode+0x72/0x1c40 fs/f2fs/inode.c:588 f2fs_update_inode_page+0x135/0x170 fs/f2fs/inode.c:706 f2fs_write_inode+0x416/0x790 fs/f2fs/inode.c:734 write_inode fs/fs-writeback.c:1460 [inline] __writeback_single_inode+0x4cf/0xb80 fs/fs-writeback.c:1677 writeback_sb_inodes+0xb32/0x1910 fs/fs-writeback.c:1903 __writeback_inodes_wb+0x118/0x3f0 fs/fs-writeback.c:1974 wb_writeback+0x3da/0xa00 fs/fs-writeback.c:2081 wb_check_background_flush fs/fs-writeback.c:2151 [inline] wb_do_writeback fs/fs-writeback.c:2239 [inline] wb_workfn+0xbba/0x1030 fs/fs-writeback.c:2266 process_one_work+0x73d/0xcb0 kernel/workqueue.c:2299 worker_thread+0xa60/0x1260 kernel/workqueue.c:2446 kthread+0x26d/0x300 kernel/kthread.c:386 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:295 </TASK> Allocated by task 298: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:45 [inline] kasan_set_track+0x4b/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:52 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x1f/0x30 mm/kasan/generic.c:505 __kasan_slab_alloc+0x6c/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:333 kasan_slab_alloc include/linux/kasan.h:202 [inline] slab_post_alloc_hook+0x53/0x2c0 mm/slab.h:768 slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:3421 [inline] slab_alloc mm/slub.c:3431 [inline] __kmem_cache_alloc_lru mm/slub.c:3438 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc_lru+0x102/0x270 mm/slub.c:3454 alloc_inode_sb include/linux/fs.h:3255 [inline] f2fs_alloc_inode+0x2d/0x350 fs/f2fs/super.c:1437 alloc_inode fs/inode.c:261 [inline] iget_locked+0x18c/0x7e0 fs/inode.c:1373 f2fs_iget+0x55/0x4ca0 fs/f2fs/inode.c:486 f2fs_lookup+0x3c1/0xb50 fs/f2fs/namei.c:484 __lookup_slow+0x2b9/0x3e0 fs/namei.c:1689 lookup_slow+0x5a/0x80 fs/namei.c:1706 walk_component+0x2e7/0x410 fs/namei.c:1997 lookup_last fs/namei.c:2454 [inline] path_lookupat+0x16d/0x450 fs/namei.c:2478 filename_lookup+0x251/0x600 fs/namei.c:2507 vfs_statx+0x107/0x4b0 fs/stat.c:229 vfs_fstatat fs/stat.c:267 [inline] vfs_lstat include/linux/fs.h:3434 [inline] __do_sys_newlstat fs/stat.c:423 [inline] __se_sys_newlstat+0xda/0x7c0 fs/stat.c:417 __x64_sys_newlstat+0x5b/0x70 fs/stat.c:417 x64_sys_call+0x52/0x9a0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:7 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:51 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x80 arch/x86/entry/common.c:81 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x68/0xd2 Freed by task 0: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:45 [inline] kasan_set_track+0x4b/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:52 kasan_save_free_info+0x2b/0x40 mm/kasan/generic.c:516 ____kasan_slab_free+0x131/0x180 mm/kasan/common.c:241 __kasan_slab_free+0x11/0x20 mm/kasan/common.c:249 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:178 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:1745 [inline] slab_free_freelist_hook mm/slub.c:1771 [inline] slab_free mm/slub.c:3686 [inline] kmem_cache_free+0x ---truncated---
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires timely application of the kernel patch that resolves the UAF in f2fs_sync_inode_meta().
Memory-protection mechanisms (e.g., KASAN-style bounds checking or hardware tagging) detect or block the invalid list operation on a freed f2fs inode.
Disabling or not loading the f2fs module when unneeded eliminates the vulnerable code path entirely.
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.