CVE-2025-38233: powerpc64/ftrace: fix clobbered r15 during livepatching
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2025-38233 is a high (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of scored vulnerabilities.
Not severe (CVSS 7.8, local access); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 11 · Related 11Timeline
- 04-07-2025PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 05-08-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc64/ftrace: fix clobbered r15 during livepatching While r15 is clobbered always with PPC_FTRACE_OUT_OF_LINE, it is not restored in livepatch sequence leading to not so obvious fails like below: BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on write at 0xc0000000000f9078 Faulting instruction address: 0xc0000000018ff958 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] ... NIP: c0000000018ff958 LR: c0000000018ff930 CTR: c0000000009c0790 REGS: c00000005f2e7790 TRAP: 0300 Tainted: G K (6.14.0+) MSR: 8000000000009033 <SF,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 2822880b XER: 20040000 CFAR: c0000000008addc0 DAR: c0000000000f9078 DSISR: 0a000000 IRQMASK: 1 GPR00: c0000000018f2584 c00000005f2e7a30 c00000000280a900 c000000017ffa488 GPR04: 0000000000000008 0000000000000000 c0000000018f24fc 000000000000000d GPR08: fffffffffffe0000 000000000000000d 0000000000000000 0000000000008000 GPR12: c0000000009c0790 c000000017ffa480 c00000005f2e7c78 c0000000000f9070 GPR16: c00000005f2e7c90 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR20: 0000000000000000 c00000005f3efa80 c00000005f2e7c60 c00000005f2e7c88 GPR24: c00000005f2e7c60 0000000000000001 c0000000000f9078 0000000000000000 GPR28: 00007fff97960000 c000000017ffa480 0000000000000000 c0000000000f9078 ... Call Trace: check_heap_object+0x34/0x390 (unreliable) __mutex_unlock_slowpath.isra.0+0xe4/0x230 seq_read_iter+0x430/0xa90 proc_reg_read_iter+0xa4/0x200 vfs_read+0x41c/0x510 ksys_read+0xa4/0x190 system_call_exception+0x1d0/0x440 system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec Fix it by restoring r15 always.
CVSS metrics
4 scores · 3 sources · 2 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated7.8HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- NVDNIST7.8HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS trend
Probability
0.16%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
5%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
Increase +0.01 pp
From 0.15% 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.
Ubuntu89 products
- linux-allwinner-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.0All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.11All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.13All versions (No fix recorded)
- linux-aws-5.19All versions (No fix recorded)
Linux2 products
- linux≥ eec37961a56aa4f3fe1c33ffd48eec7d1bb0c009, < a9212bf5ca640232254b31330e86272fe4073bc9 | ≥ eec37961a56aa4f3fe1c33ffd48eec7d1bb0c009, < cb5b691f8273432297611863ac142e17119279e0 | 6.13
- linux_kernel≥ 6.13, < 6.15.4
2 vendors · 91 products