NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-38569

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: benet: fix BUG when creating VFs benet crashes as soon as SRIOV VFs are created: kernel BUG at mm/vmalloc.c:3457! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 7408 Comm: test.sh Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.16.0+ #1 PREEMPT(voluntary) [...] RIP: 0010:vunmap+0x5f/0x70 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> __iommu_dma_free+0xe8/0x1c0 be_cmd_set_mac_list+0x3fe/0x640 [be2net] be_cmd_set_mac+0xaf/0x110 [be2net] be_vf_eth_addr_config+0x19f/0x330 [be2net] be_vf_setup+0x4f7/0x990 [be2net] be_pci_sriov_configure+0x3a1/0x470 [be2net] sriov_numvfs_store+0x20b/0x380 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x354/0x530 vfs_write+0x9b9/0xf60 ksys_write+0xf3/0x1d0 do_syscall_64+0x8c/0x3d0 be_cmd_set_mac_list() calls dma_free_coherent() under a spin_lock_bh. Fix it by freeing only after the lock has been released.

EPSS: 0.002 (6.7th 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-2025-38569?
CVE-2025-38569 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-08-19.
How severe is CVE-2025-38569?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-38569 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.