NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-38243

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix invalid inode pointer dereferences during log replay In a few places where we call read_one_inode(), if we get a NULL pointer we end up jumping into an error path, or fallthrough in case of __add_inode_ref(), where we then do something like this: iput(&inode->vfs_inode); which results in an invalid inode pointer that triggers an invalid memory access, resulting in a crash. Fix this by making sure we don't do such dereferences.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (3.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 4th percentile — 3.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2025-38243: held from 0.001 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 0502d1127436a69b8c2e7cf309ae0ebff3332668, b4c50cbb01a1b6901d2b94469636dd80fa93de81, 6.15
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.16

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38243?
CVE-2025-38243 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-07-09.
How severe is CVE-2025-38243?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.