RCE in Linux

CVE-2025-38523

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix the smbd_response slab to allow usercopy The handling of received data in the smbdirect client code involves using copy_to_iter() to copy data from the smbd_reponse struct's packet trailer to a folioq buffer provided by netfslib that encapsulates a chunk of pagecache. If, however, CONFIG_HARDENED_USERCOPY=y, this will result in the checks then performed in copy_to_iter() oopsing with something like the following: CIFS: Attempting to mount //172.31.9.1/test CIFS: VFS: RDMA transport established usercopy: Kernel memory exposure attempt detected from SLUB object 'smbd_response_0000000091e24ea1' (offset 81, size 63)! ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at mm/usercopy.c:102! ... RIP: 0010:usercopy_abort+0x6c/0x80 ... Call Trace: <TASK> __check_heap_object+0xe3/0x120 __check_object_size+0x4dc/0x6d0 smbd_recv+0x77f/0xfe0 [cifs] cifs_readv_from_socket+0x276/0x8f0 [cifs] cifs_read_from_socket+0xcd/0x120 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x7e9/0x2d50 [cifs] kthread+0x396/0x830 ret_from_fork+0x2b8/0x3b0 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 The problem is that the smbd_response slab's packet field isn't marked as being permitted for usercopy. Fix this by passing parameters to kmem_slab_create() to indicate that copy_to_iter() is permitted from the packet region of the smbd_response slab objects, less the header space.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (26.4th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 26th percentile — 26.4% 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-2025-38523: held from 0.003 to 0.004.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.004 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions ee4cdf7ba857a894ad1650d6ab77669cbbfa329e, 6.12, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.16

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38523?
CVE-2025-38523 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Initialization of a Resource with an Insecure Default. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2025-08-16.
How severe is CVE-2025-38523?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.