Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2025-38169
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64/fpsimd: Avoid clobbering kernel FPSIMD state with SMSTOP On system with SME, a thread's kernel FPSIMD state may be erroneously clobbered during a context switch immediately after that state is restored. Systems without SME are unaffected. If the CPU happens to be in streaming SVE mode before a context switch to a thread with kernel FPSIMD state, fpsimd_thread_switch() will restore the kernel FPSIMD state using fpsimd_load_kernel_state() while the CPU is still in streaming SVE mode. When fpsimd_thread_switch() subsequently calls fpsimd_flush_cpu_state(), this will execute an SMSTOP, causing an exit from streaming SVE mode. The exit from streaming SVE mode will cause the hardware to reset a number of FPSIMD/SVE/SME registers, clobbering the FPSIMD state. Fix this by calling fpsimd_flush_cpu_state() before restoring the kernel FPSIMD state.
EPSS: 0.001 (4.4th 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 6.9.3, 6.16, e003c485ac82a9f8de4204912ed059ac6dd4257c
- Linux Linux_kernel
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-38169?
- CVE-2025-38169 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-07-03.
- How severe is CVE-2025-38169?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.