HighCVE-2025-38250

    Linux Kernel: Use-After-Free (CVE-2025-38250)

    Published Last modified Sources: SUSE, Debian LTS, Debian, Siemens ProductCERT, Ubuntu, BSI, CVE.org, Msrc Update Guide, EUVD

    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: hci_core: Fix use-after-free in vhci_flush() syzbot reported use-after-free in vhci_flush() without repro. [0] From the splat, a thread close()d a vhci file descriptor while its device was being used by iotcl() on another thread. Once the last fd refcnt is released, vhci_release() calls hci_unregister_dev(), hci_free_dev(), and kfree() for struct vhci_data, which is set to hci_dev->dev->driver_data.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.10.259, Linux Kernel to version 5.15.209, Linux Kernel to version 6.1.167.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 3.4..5.10.259
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.11..5.15.209
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.1.167
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.2..6.6.97
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.36
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.15.5
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.10.259
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.209
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.167
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.97
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.36
    • Linux Kernel 6.15.5
    • Linux Kernel 6.16

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: SUSE, Debian LTS, Debian, Siemens ProductCERT, Ubuntu, BSI, CVE.org, Msrc Update Guide, EUVD

    0.2 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 7.8

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    High
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    49.28 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.2 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 15 October 2026

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Bluetooth: hci_core: Fix use-after-free in vhci_flush() syzbot reported use-after-free in vhci_flush() without repro. [0] From the splat, a thread close()d a vhci file descriptor while its device was being used by iotcl() on another thread. Once the last fd refcnt is released, vhci_release() calls hci_unregister_dev(), hci_free_dev(), and kfree() for struct vhci_data, which is set to hci_dev->dev->driver_data. The problem is that there is no synchronisation after unlinking hdev from hci_dev_list in hci_unregister_dev(). There might be another thread still accessing the hdev which was fetched before the unlink operation. We can use SRCU for such synchronisation. Let's run hci_dev_reset() under SRCU and wait for its completion in hci_unregister_dev(). Another option would be to restore hci_dev->destruct(), which was removed in commit 587ae086f6e4 ("Bluetooth: Remove unused hci-destruct cb"). However, this would not be a good solution, as we should not run hci_unregister_dev() while there are in-flight ioctl() requests, which could lead to another data-race KCSAN splat. Note that other drivers seem to have the same problem, for exmaple, virtbt_remove(). [0]: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in skb_queue_empty_lockless include/linux/skbuff.h:1891 [inline] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in skb_queue_purge_reason+0x99/0x360 net/core/skbuff.c:3937 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88807cb8d858 by task syz.1.219/6718 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 6718 Comm: syz.1.219 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1-syzkaller-00196-g08207f42d3ff #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/07/2025 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x189/0x250 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:408 [inline] print_report+0xd2/0x2b0 mm/kasan/report.c:521 kasan_report+0x118/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:634 skb_queue_empty_lockless include/linux/skbuff.h:1891 [inline] skb_queue_purge_reason+0x99/0x360 net/core/skbuff.c:3937 skb_queue_purge include/linux/skbuff.h:3368 [inline] vhci_flush+0x44/0x50 drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:69 hci_dev_do_reset net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:552 [inline] hci_dev_reset+0x420/0x5c0 net/bluetooth/hci_core.c:592 sock_do_ioctl+0xd9/0x300 net/socket.c:1190 sock_ioctl+0x576/0x790 net/socket.c:1311 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:907 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl+0xf9/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:893 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fcf5b98e929 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fcf5c7b9038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fcf5bbb6160 RCX: 00007fcf5b98e929 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00000000400448cb RDI: 0000000000000009 RBP: 00007fcf5ba10b39 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 00007fcf5bbb6160 R15: 00007ffd6353d528 </TASK> Allocated by task 6535: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0x93/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x230/0x3d0 mm/slub.c:4359 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:905 [inline] kzalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:1039 [inline] vhci_open+0x57/0x360 drivers/bluetooth/hci_vhci.c:635 misc_open+0x2bc/0x330 drivers/char/misc.c:161 chrdev_open+0x4c9/0x5e0 fs/char_dev.c:414 do_dentry_open+0xdf0/0x1970 fs/open.c:964 vfs_open+0x3b/0x340 fs/open.c:1094 do_open fs/namei.c:3887 [inline] path_openat+0x2ee5/0x3830 fs/name ---truncated---

    Source: suse_csaf, Debian LTS Advisories, Debian Security Advisories, siemens_advisory, Ubuntu Security Notices, BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), Microsoft Security Update Guide, CVE.org (MITRE), ENISA EUVD

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.36
    • —
    • 5.11 – < 5.15.209
    • 3.4 – < 5.10.259
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.97
    • 6.13 – < 6.15.5
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.167
    • 6.12.36
    • 6.16
    • 5.15.209
    • 5.10.259
    • 6.6.97
    • 6.15.5
    • 6.1.167
    SiemensSIMATIC S7
    • 1500 TM MFP V1.1.1 GNU/Linux subsystem
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxbookworm
    Linuxdebianlinuxbullseye
    Linuxdebianlinux-6.1bullseye
    Linuxlinuxlinux_kernel6.16
    Linuxlinuxlinux_kernel—

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedCISA ADP

      CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: no

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      SSVC assessmentadded
      —
      {"id":"CVE-2025-38250","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"no"},{"technicalImpact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-15T21:48:58.439628Z"}

      Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    2. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 18 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0e5c144c557df910ab64d9c25d06399a9a735e65
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d6123102e9fbedc8d25bf4731da6d513173e49e
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90dee0a0ff84fac8accd5be98412b3819f667149
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc0819a25e04cd68ef3568cfa51b63118fea39a7
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c56b177efce8b62798e4d96bdb9867106cb7c4a0
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce23b73f0f27e2dbeb81734a79db710f05aa33c6
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dd4becd3fd4102696e1c15e6d260a1712a2d8685
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0e5c144c557df910ab64d9c25d06399a9a735e65
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d6123102e9fbedc8d25bf4731da6d513173e49e
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90dee0a0ff84fac8accd5be98412b3819f667149
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc0819a25e04cd68ef3568cfa51b63118fea39a7
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c56b177efce8b62798e4d96bdb9867106cb7c4a0
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce23b73f0f27e2dbeb81734a79db710f05aa33c6
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dd4becd3fd4102696e1c15e6d260a1712a2d8685
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0e5c144c557df910ab64d9c25d06399a9a735e65 Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1d6123102e9fbedc8d25bf4731da6d513173e49e Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc0819a25e04cd68ef3568cfa51b63118fea39a7 Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce23b73f0f27e2dbeb81734a79db710f05aa33c6 Types: Patch
      —

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    3. Record modifiedSiemens ADP

      Show 2 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2025/38xxx/CVE-2025-38250.json">CVE-2025-38250</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-784472.html

      Source identifier: 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e

    4. Record modifiedLinux

      CVSS V3.1: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      CVSSadded
      —
      AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    5. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 2 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dd4becd3fd4102696e1c15e6d260a1712a2d8685
      Affected versions (publisher)changed
      Linux, Linux
      Linux, Linux

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

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