CVE-2025-38031: padata: do not leak refcount in reorder_work
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2025-38031 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 11.7% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 5.5, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 45 · Related 42Timeline
- 18-06-2025PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 23-05-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: padata: do not leak refcount in reorder_work A recent patch that addressed a UAF introduced a reference count leak: the parallel_data refcount is incremented unconditionally, regardless of the return value of queue_work(). If the work item is already queued, the incremented refcount is never decremented. Fix this by checking the return value of queue_work() and decrementing the refcount when necessary. Resolves: Unreferenced object 0xffff9d9f421e3d80 (size 192): comm "cryptomgr_probe", pid 157, jiffies 4294694003 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 80 8b cf 41 9f 9d ff ff b8 97 e0 89 ff ff ff ff ...A............ d0 97 e0 89 ff ff ff ff 19 00 00 00 1f 88 23 00 ..............#. backtrace (crc 838fb36): __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x284/0x320 padata_alloc_pd+0x20/0x1e0 padata_alloc_shell+0x3b/0xa0 0xffffffffc040a54d cryptomgr_probe+0x43/0xc0 kthread+0xf6/0x1f0 ret_from_fork+0x2f/0x50 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
CVSS metrics
4 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated5.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.21%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
12%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
Increase +0.01 pp
From 0.20% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeNo weakness data has been published for this record.
Affected systems
Known conditions: local access, low-privilege account, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Ubuntu132 products
- linux< 5.15.0-152.162 | < 6.8.0-100.100
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws< 5.15.0-1090.97 | < 6.8.0-1046.49
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
Debian2 products
- linux< 6.1.147-1 | < 6.12.32-1
- debian_linuxEOL11.0
Linux2 products
- linux≥ f4f1b1169fc3694f9bc3e28c6c68dbbf4cc744c0, < b9ad8e50e8589607e68e6c4cefa7f72bf35a2cb1 | ≥ 4c6209efea2208597dbd3e52dc87a0d1a8f2dbe1, < 1a426abdf1c86882c9203dd8182f3b8274b89938 | ≥ 7000507bb0d2ceb545c0a690e0c707c897d102c2, < cceb15864e1612ebfbc10ec4e4dcd19a10c0056c | ≥ 6f45ef616775b0ce7889b0f6077fc8d681ab30bc, < 584a729615fa92f4de45480efb7e569d14be1516 | ≥ 8ca38d0ca8c3d30dd18d311f1a7ec5cb56972cac, < 5300e487487d7a2e3e1e6e9d8f03ed9452e4019e | ≥ dd7d37ccf6b11f3d95e797ebe4e9e886d0332600, < 1c65ae4988714716101555fe2b9830e33136d6fb | ≥ dd7d37ccf6b11f3d95e797ebe4e9e886d0332600, < d6ebcde6d4ecf34f8495fb30516645db3aea8993 | a54091c24220a4cd847d5b4f36d678edacddbaf0 | ≥ 5.10.235, < 5.10.238 | ≥ 5.15.179, < 5.15.185 | ≥ 6.1.129, < 6.1.141 | ≥ 6.6.76, < 6.6.93 | ≥ 6.12.13, < 6.12.31 | ≥ 6.13.2, < 6.14 | 6.14
- linux_kernel≥ 5.10.235, < 5.10.238 | ≥ 5.15.179, < 5.15.185 | ≥ 6.1.129, < 6.1.141 | ≥ 6.6.76, < 6.6.93 | ≥ 6.12.13, < 6.12.31 | ≥ 6.13.2, < 6.14.9 | 6.15:rc1 | 6.15:rc2 | 6.15:rc3 | 6.15:rc4 | 6.15:rc5 | 6.15:rc6 | 6.15:rc7
3 vendors · 136 products
References
44 links
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.htmlThird Party Advisory- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.htmlThird Party Advisory