Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-38731 is a high-severity Double Free (CWE-415) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-31558
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe: Fix vm_bind_ioctl double free bug If the argument check during an array bind fails, the bind_ops are freed twice as seen below. Fix this by setting bind_ops to NULL…
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after freeing. ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: double-free in xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x1b2/0x21f0 [xe] Free of addr ffff88813bb9b800 by task xe_vm/14198 CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 14198 Comm: xe_vm Not tainted 6.16.0-xe-eudebug-cmanszew+ #520 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Intel Corporation Alder Lake Client Platform/AlderLake-P DDR5 RVP, BIOS ADLPFWI1.R00.2411.A02.2110081023 10/08/2021 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x82/0xd0 print_report+0xcb/0x610 ? __virt_addr_valid+0x19a/0x300 ? xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x1b2/0x21f0 [xe] kasan_report_invalid_free+0xc8/0xf0 ? xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x1b2/0x21f0 [xe] ? xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x1b2/0x21f0 [xe] check_slab_allocation+0x102/0x130 kfree+0x10d/0x440 ? should_fail_ex+0x57/0x2f0 ? xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x1b2/0x21f0 [xe] xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x1b2/0x21f0 [xe] ? __pfx_xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [xe] ? __lock_acquire+0xab9/0x27f0 ? lock_acquire+0x165/0x300 ? drm_dev_enter+0x53/0xe0 [drm] ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 ? drm_dev_exit+0x30/0x50 [drm] ? drm_ioctl_kernel+0x128/0x1c0 [drm] drm_ioctl_kernel+0x128/0x1c0 [drm] ? __pfx_xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [xe] ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 ? __pfx_drm_ioctl_kernel+0x10/0x10 [drm] ? should_fail_ex+0x57/0x2f0 ? __pfx_xe_vm_bind_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [xe] drm_ioctl+0x352/0x620 [drm] ? __pfx_drm_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [drm] ? __pfx_rpm_resume+0x10/0x10 ? do_raw_spin_lock+0x11a/0x1b0 ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 ? __pm_runtime_resume+0x61/0xc0 ? rcu_is_watching+0x20/0x50 ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0xac/0xe0 xe_drm_ioctl+0x91/0xc0 [xe] __x64_sys_ioctl+0xb2/0x100 ? rcu_is_watching+0x20/0x50 do_syscall_64+0x68/0x2e0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7fa9acb24ded (cherry picked from commit a01b704527c28a2fd43a17a85f8996b75ec8492a)
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
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Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation explicitly includes dynamic analysis and fuzzing that locate double-free defects before release.
Security engineering principles can require memory-safe allocation patterns or language features that structurally eliminate double-free opportunities.
Flaw remediation processes require identification and correction of memory-management defects such as double free once discovered.
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 prevent double-free errors via static analysis, safe memory APIs, and testing.
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 double-free conditions before release.
Secure development life cycle includes memory-safety practices that can prevent double-free bugs.
Application security requirements can mandate memory-safety rules that reduce double-free risk.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles can prescribe safe memory-management patterns.
Secure coding standards directly address proper use of free() and similar functions.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248590 OL 8 must clear the page allocator to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-415