Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-38683 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
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-2 (Flaw Remediation) and SC-39 (Process Isolation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-26786
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hv_netvsc: Fix panic during namespace deletion with VF The existing code move the VF NIC to new namespace when NETDEV_REGISTER is received on netvsc NIC. During deletion of the namespace,…
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default_device_exit_batch() >> default_device_exit_net() is called. When netvsc NIC is moved back and registered to the default namespace, it automatically brings VF NIC back to the default namespace. This will cause the default_device_exit_net() >> for_each_netdev_safe loop unable to detect the list end, and hit NULL ptr: [ 231.449420] mana 7870:00:00.0 enP30832s1: Moved VF to namespace with: eth0 [ 231.449656] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010 [ 231.450246] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 231.450579] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 231.450916] PGD 17b8a8067 P4D 0 [ 231.451163] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 231.451450] CPU: 82 UID: 0 PID: 1394 Comm: kworker/u768:1 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc4+ #3 VOLUNTARY [ 231.452042] Hardware name: Microsoft Corporation Virtual Machine/Virtual Machine, BIOS Hyper-V UEFI Release v4.1 11/21/2024 [ 231.452692] Workqueue: netns cleanup_net [ 231.452947] RIP: 0010:default_device_exit_batch+0x16c/0x3f0 [ 231.453326] Code: c0 0c f5 b3 e8 d5 db fe ff 48 85 c0 74 15 48 c7 c2 f8 fd ca b2 be 10 00 00 00 48 8d 7d c0 e8 7b 77 25 00 49 8b 86 28 01 00 00 <48> 8b 50 10 4c 8b 2a 4c 8d 62 f0 49 83 ed 10 4c 39 e0 0f 84 d6 00 [ 231.454294] RSP: 0018:ff75fc7c9bf9fd00 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 231.454610] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: 61c8864680b583eb [ 231.455094] RDX: ff1fa9f71462d800 RSI: ff75fc7c9bf9fd38 RDI: 0000000030766564 [ 231.455686] RBP: ff75fc7c9bf9fd78 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 231.456126] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000004 R12: ff1fa9f70088e340 [ 231.456621] R13: ff1fa9f70088e340 R14: ffffffffb3f50c20 R15: ff1fa9f7103e6340 [ 231.457161] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ff1faa6783a08000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 231.457707] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 231.458031] CR2: 0000000000000010 CR3: 0000000179ab2006 CR4: 0000000000b73ef0 [ 231.458434] Call Trace: [ 231.458600] <TASK> [ 231.458777] ops_undo_list+0x100/0x220 [ 231.459015] cleanup_net+0x1b8/0x300 [ 231.459285] process_one_work+0x184/0x340 To fix it, move the ns change to a workqueue, and take rtnl_lock to avoid changing the netdev list when default_device_exit_net() is using it.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mitigates the reported NULL-pointer panic by requiring timely application of the kernel fix that corrects hv_netvsc namespace/VF device-exit handling.
Addresses the root cause by enforcing proper error checking and safe list traversal inside default_device_exit_batch when netvsc moves VF NICs across namespaces.
Strengthens process isolation guarantees for network namespaces so that VF device migration cannot corrupt the for_each_netdev_safe loop during namespace teardown.
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 (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
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 can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.
Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.
Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.