Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2025-38566

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sunrpc: fix handling of server side tls alerts Scott Mayhew discovered a security exploit in NFS over TLS in tls_alert_recv() due to its assumption it can read data from the msg iterator's kvec.. kTLS implementation splits TLS non-data record payload between the control message buffer (which includes the type such as TLS aler or TLS cipher change) and the rest of the payload (say TLS alert's level/description) which goes into the msg payload buffer. This patch proposes to rework how control messages are setup and used by sock_recvmsg(). If no control message structure is setup, kTLS layer will read and process TLS data record types. As soon as it encounters a TLS control message, it would return an error. At that point, NFS can setup a kvec backed msg buffer and read in the control message such as a TLS alert. Msg iterator can advance the kvec pointer as a part of the copy process thus we need to revert the iterator before calling into the tls_alert_recv.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.006 (46.0th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 46th percentile — 46.0% 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-2025-38566: held from 0.006 to 0.006.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 5e052dda121e2870dd87181783da4a95d7d2927b, 6.4, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.17

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-38566?
CVE-2025-38566 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2025-08-19.
How severe is CVE-2025-38566?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.