CVE-2025-38468: debian debian_linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-38468 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 7.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 28-07-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 15-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: Return NULL when htb_lookup_leaf encounters an empty rbtree htb_lookup_leaf has a BUG_ON that can trigger with the following: tc qdisc del dev lo root tc qdisc add dev lo root handle 1: htb default 1 tc class add dev lo parent 1: classid 1:1 htb rate 64bit tc qdisc add dev lo parent 1:1 handle 2: netem tc qdisc add dev lo parent 2:1 handle 3: blackhole ping -I lo -c1 -W0.001 127.0.0.1 The root cause is the following: 1. htb_dequeue calls htb_dequeue_tree which calls the dequeue handler on the selected leaf qdisc 2. netem_dequeue calls enqueue on the child qdisc 3. blackhole_enqueue drops the packet and returns a value that is not just NET_XMIT_SUCCESS 4. Because of this, netem_dequeue calls qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog, and since qlen is now 0, it calls htb_qlen_notify -> htb_deactivate -> htb_deactiviate_prios -> htb_remove_class_from_row -> htb_safe_rb_erase 5. As this is the only class in the selected hprio rbtree, __rb_change_child in __rb_erase_augmented sets the rb_root pointer to NULL 6. Because blackhole_dequeue returns NULL, netem_dequeue returns NULL, which causes htb_dequeue_tree to call htb_lookup_leaf with the same hprio rbtree, and fail the BUG_ON The function graph for this scenario is shown here: 0) | htb_enqueue() { 0) + 13.635 us | netem_enqueue(); 0) 4.719 us | htb_activate_prios(); 0) # 2249.199 us | } 0) | htb_dequeue() { 0) 2.355 us | htb_lookup_leaf(); 0) | netem_dequeue() { 0) + 11.061 us | blackhole_enqueue(); 0) | qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog() { 0) | qdisc_lookup_rcu() { 0) 1.873 us | qdisc_match_from_root(); 0) 6.292 us | } 0) 1.894 us | htb_search(); 0) | htb_qlen_notify() { 0) 2.655 us | htb_deactivate_prios(); 0) 6.933 us | } 0) + 25.227 us | } 0) 1.983 us | blackhole_dequeue(); 0) + 86.553 us | } 0) # 2932.761 us | qdisc_warn_nonwc(); 0) | htb_lookup_leaf() { 0) | BUG_ON(); ------------------------------------------ The full original bug report can be seen here [1]. We can fix this just by returning NULL instead of the BUG_ON, as htb_dequeue_tree returns NULL when htb_lookup_leaf returns NULL. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/pF5XOOIim0IuEfhI-SOxTgRvNoDwuux7UHKnE_Y5-zVd4wmGvNk2ceHjKb8ORnzw0cGwfmVu42g9dL7XyJLf1NEzaztboTWcm0Ogxuojoeo=@willsroot.io/

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