Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2025-38539
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Add down_write(trace_event_sem) when adding trace event When a module is loaded, it adds trace events defined by the module. It may also need to modify the modules trace printk formats to replace enum names with their values. If two modules are loaded at the same time, the adding of the event to the ftrace_events list can corrupt the walking of the list in the code that is modifying the printk format strings and crash the kernel. The addition of the event should take the trace_event_sem for write while it adds the new event. Also add a lockdep_assert_held() on that semaphore in __trace_add_event_dirs() as it iterates the list.
EPSS: 0.002 (5.6th 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
- Linux — versions 110bf2b764eb6026b868d84499263cb24b1bcc8d, 2.6.31, 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)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-38539?
- CVE-2025-38539 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2025-08-16.
- How severe is CVE-2025-38539?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2025-38539 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.