5.5

CVE-2025-37989: net: phy: leds: fix memory leak

Analyzed
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2025-37989DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37989
Published 20-05-2025Last modified 11-05-2026

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-37989 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 9.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Routine

Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
5.5/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.20%
0%100%
Low · +0.01 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 44 · Related 41
DLA-4193-1MGASA-2025-0182MGASA-2025-0183SUSE-SU-2025:01964-1SUSE-SU-2025:01965-1SUSE-SU-2025:01983-1

Timeline

  1. 20-05-2025
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 11-05-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: phy: leds: fix memory leak A network restart test on a router led to an out-of-memory condition, which was traced to a memory leak in the PHY LED trigger code. The root cause is misuse of the devm API. The registration function (phy_led_triggers_register) is called from phy_attach_direct, not phy_probe, and the unregister function (phy_led_triggers_unregister) is called from phy_detach, not phy_remove. This means the register and unregister functions can be called multiple times for the same PHY device, but devm-allocated memory is not freed until the driver is unbound. This also prevents kmemleak from detecting the leak, as the devm API internally stores the allocated pointer. Fix this by replacing devm_kzalloc/devm_kcalloc with standard kzalloc/kcalloc, and add the corresponding kfree calls in the unregister path.

CVSS metrics

3 scores · 3 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.20%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

10%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

Increase +0.01 pp

From 0.19% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Ubuntu139 products
  • linuxAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-144.157 | < 6.8.0-100.100
  • linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-awsAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 5.15.0-1088.95 | < 6.8.0-1046.49
  • linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
  • linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Debian2 products
Linux2 products
  • linux≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < 966d6494e2ed9be9052fcd9815afba830896aaf8 | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < 95bed65cc0eb2a610550abf849a8b94374da80a7 | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < 663c3da86e807c6c07ed48f911c7526fad6fe1ff | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < f41f097f68a33d392579885426d0734a81219501 | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < 618541a6cc1511064dfa58c89b3445e21844092f | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < 41143e71052a00d654c15dc924fda50c1e7357d0 | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < 7f3d5880800f962c347777c4f8358f29f5fc403c | ≥ 2e0bc452f4721520502575362a9cd3c1248d2337, < b7f0ee992adf601aa00c252418266177eb7ac2bc | 4.10
  • linux_kernel≥ 4.10, < 5.4.293 | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.237 | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.181 | ≥ 5.16, < 6.1.136 | ≥ 6.2, < 6.6.89 | ≥ 6.7, < 6.12.26 | ≥ 6.13, < 6.14.5 | 6.15:rc1 | 6.15:rc2 | 6.15:rc3

3 vendors · 143 products

References

43 links
Show all 43 references