CVE-2025-38387: debian debian_linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-38387 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 25-07-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 11-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RDMA/mlx5: Initialize obj_event->obj_sub_list before xa_insert The obj_event may be loaded immediately after inserted, then if the list_head is not initialized then we may get a poisonous pointer. This fixes the crash below: mlx5_core 0000:03:00.0: MLX5E: StrdRq(1) RqSz(8) StrdSz(2048) RxCqeCmprss(0 enhanced) mlx5_core.sf mlx5_core.sf.4: firmware version: 32.38.3056 mlx5_core 0000:03:00.0 en3f0pf0sf2002: renamed from eth0 mlx5_core.sf mlx5_core.sf.4: Rate limit: 127 rates are supported, range: 0Mbps to 195312Mbps IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): en3f0pf0sf2002: link becomes ready Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000060 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x96000006 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000006 CM = 0, WnR = 0 user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=00000007760fb000 [0000000000000060] pgd=000000076f6d7003, p4d=000000076f6d7003, pud=0000000777841003, pmd=0000000000000000 Internal error: Oops: 96000006 [#1] SMP Modules linked in: ipmb_host(OE) act_mirred(E) cls_flower(E) sch_ingress(E) mptcp_diag(E) udp_diag(E) raw_diag(E) unix_diag(E) tcp_diag(E) inet_diag(E) binfmt_misc(E) bonding(OE) rdma_ucm(OE) rdma_cm(OE) iw_cm(OE) ib_ipoib(OE) ib_cm(OE) isofs(E) cdrom(E) mst_pciconf(OE) ib_umad(OE) mlx5_ib(OE) ipmb_dev_int(OE) mlx5_core(OE) kpatch_15237886(OEK) mlxdevm(OE) auxiliary(OE) ib_uverbs(OE) ib_core(OE) psample(E) mlxfw(OE) tls(E) sunrpc(E) vfat(E) fat(E) crct10dif_ce(E) ghash_ce(E) sha1_ce(E) sbsa_gwdt(E) virtio_console(E) ext4(E) mbcache(E) jbd2(E) xfs(E) libcrc32c(E) mmc_block(E) virtio_net(E) net_failover(E) failover(E) sha2_ce(E) sha256_arm64(E) nvme(OE) nvme_core(OE) gpio_mlxbf3(OE) mlx_compat(OE) mlxbf_pmc(OE) i2c_mlxbf(OE) sdhci_of_dwcmshc(OE) pinctrl_mlxbf3(OE) mlxbf_pka(OE) gpio_generic(E) i2c_core(E) mmc_core(E) mlxbf_gige(OE) vitesse(E) pwr_mlxbf(OE) mlxbf_tmfifo(OE) micrel(E) mlxbf_bootctl(OE) virtio_ring(E) virtio(E) ipmi_devintf(E) ipmi_msghandler(E) [last unloaded: mst_pci] CPU: 11 PID: 20913 Comm: rte-worker-11 Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE K 5.10.134-13.1.an8.aarch64 #1 Hardware name: https://www.mellanox.com BlueField-3 SmartNIC Main Card/BlueField-3 SmartNIC Main Card, BIOS 4.2.2.12968 Oct 26 2023 pstate: a0400089 (NzCv daIf +PAN -UAO -TCO BTYPE=--) pc : dispatch_event_fd+0x68/0x300 [mlx5_ib] lr : devx_event_notifier+0xcc/0x228 [mlx5_ib] sp : ffff80001005bcf0 x29: ffff80001005bcf0 x28: 0000000000000001 x27: ffff244e0740a1d8 x26: ffff244e0740a1d0 x25: ffffda56beff5ae0 x24: ffffda56bf911618 x23: ffff244e0596a480 x22: ffff244e0596a480 x21: ffff244d8312ad90 x20: ffff244e0596a480 x19: fffffffffffffff0 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffffda56be66d620 x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000040 x10: ffffda56bfcafb50 x9 : ffffda5655c25f2c x8 : 0000000000000010 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : ffff24545a2e24b8 x5 : 0000000000000003 x4 : ffff80001005bd28 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff244e0596a480 x0 : ffff244d8312ad90 Call trace: dispatch_event_fd+0x68/0x300 [mlx5_ib] devx_event_notifier+0xcc/0x228 [mlx5_ib] atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x58/0x80 mlx5_eq_async_int+0x148/0x2b0 [mlx5_core] atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x58/0x80 irq_int_handler+0x20/0x30 [mlx5_core] __handle_irq_event_percpu+0x60/0x220 handle_irq_event_percpu+0x3c/0x90 handle_irq_event+0x58/0x158 handle_fasteoi_irq+0xfc/0x188 generic_handle_irq+0x34/0x48 ...

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