CVE-2025-38163: debian debian_linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-38163 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7.4% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 03-07-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 11-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: fix to do sanity check on sbi->total_valid_block_count syzbot reported a f2fs bug as below: ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at fs/f2fs/f2fs.h:2521! RIP: 0010:dec_valid_block_count+0x3b2/0x3c0 fs/f2fs/f2fs.h:2521 Call Trace: f2fs_truncate_data_blocks_range+0xc8c/0x11a0 fs/f2fs/file.c:695 truncate_dnode+0x417/0x740 fs/f2fs/node.c:973 truncate_nodes+0x3ec/0xf50 fs/f2fs/node.c:1014 f2fs_truncate_inode_blocks+0x8e3/0x1370 fs/f2fs/node.c:1197 f2fs_do_truncate_blocks+0x840/0x12b0 fs/f2fs/file.c:810 f2fs_truncate_blocks+0x10d/0x300 fs/f2fs/file.c:838 f2fs_truncate+0x417/0x720 fs/f2fs/file.c:888 f2fs_setattr+0xc4f/0x12f0 fs/f2fs/file.c:1112 notify_change+0xbca/0xe90 fs/attr.c:552 do_truncate+0x222/0x310 fs/open.c:65 handle_truncate fs/namei.c:3466 [inline] do_open fs/namei.c:3849 [inline] path_openat+0x2e4f/0x35d0 fs/namei.c:4004 do_filp_open+0x284/0x4e0 fs/namei.c:4031 do_sys_openat2+0x12b/0x1d0 fs/open.c:1429 do_sys_open fs/open.c:1444 [inline] __do_sys_creat fs/open.c:1522 [inline] __se_sys_creat fs/open.c:1516 [inline] __x64_sys_creat+0x124/0x170 fs/open.c:1516 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x230 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 The reason is: in fuzzed image, sbi->total_valid_block_count is inconsistent w/ mapped blocks indexed by inode, so, we should not trigger panic for such case, instead, let's print log and set fsck flag.

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.