Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2025-38528
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Reject %p% format string in bprintf-like helpers static const char fmt[] = "%p%"; bpf_trace_printk(fmt, sizeof(fmt)); The above BPF program isn't rejected and causes a kernel warning at runtime: Please remove unsupported %\x00 in format string WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 7244 at lib/vsprintf.c:2680 format_decode+0x49c/0x5d0 This happens because bpf_bprintf_prepare skips over the second %, detected as punctuation, while processing %p. This patch fixes it by not skipping over punctuation. %\x00 is then processed in the next iteration and rejected.
EPSS: 0.002 (5.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.1 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 48cac3f4a96ddf08df8e53809ed066de0dc93915, 5.13, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel — versions 6.16
- Debian Debian_linux — versions 11.0
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-38528?
- CVE-2025-38528 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.1/10. Published 2025-08-16.
- How severe is CVE-2025-38528?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.1 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2025-38528 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.