Use After Free in Linux

CVE-2025-38212

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipc: fix to protect IPCS lookups using RCU syzbot reported that it discovered a use-after-free vulnerability, [0] [0]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/67af13f8.050a0220.21dd3.0038.GAE@google.com/ idr_for_each() is protected by rwsem, but this is not enough. If it is not protected by RCU read-critical region, when idr_for_each() calls radix_tree_node_free() through call_rcu() to free the radix_tree_node structure, the node will be freed immediately, and when reading the next node in radix_tree_for_each_slot(), the already freed memory may be read. Therefore, we need to add code to make sure that idr_for_each() is protected within the RCU read-critical region when we call it in shm_destroy_orphaned().

Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free

EPSS: 0.002 (5.2th 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

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38212?
CVE-2025-38212 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-07-04.
How severe is CVE-2025-38212?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-38212 known to be exploited?
2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.