Use After Free in Linux
CVE-2025-38076
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: alloc_tag: allocate percpu counters for module tags dynamically When a module gets unloaded it checks whether any of its tags are still in use and if so, we keep the memory containing module's allocation tags alive until all tags are unused. However percpu counters referenced by the tags are freed by free_module(). This will lead to UAF if the memory allocated by a module is accessed after module was unloaded. To fix this we allocate percpu counters for module allocation tags dynamically and we keep it alive for tags which are still in use after module unloading. This also removes the requirement of a larger PERCPU_MODULE_RESERVE when memory allocation profiling is enabled because percpu memory for counters does not need to be reserved anymore.
Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free
EPSS: 0.002 (5.4th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 0db6f8d7820a4b788565dac8eed52bfc2c3216da, 6.13, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel — versions 6.15
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-38076?
- CVE-2025-38076 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-06-18.
- How severe is CVE-2025-38076?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.