NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-38364

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: maple_tree: fix MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag in mas_preallocate() Temporarily clear the preallocation flag when explicitly requesting allocations. Pre-existing allocations are already counted against the request through mas_node_count_gfp(), but the allocations will not happen if the MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag is set. This flag is meant to avoid re-allocating in bulk allocation mode, and to detect issues with preallocation calculations. The MA_STATE_PREALLOC flag should also always be set on zero allocations so that detection of underflow allocations will print a WARN_ON() during consumption. User visible effect of this flaw is a WARN_ON() followed by a null pointer dereference when subsequent requests for larger number of nodes is ignored, such as the vma merge retry in mmap_region() caused by drivers altering the vma flags (which happens in v6.6, at least)

EPSS: 0.002 (5.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

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.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38364?
CVE-2025-38364 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-07-25.
How severe is CVE-2025-38364?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-38364 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.