CVE-2025-37774 | slab: ensure slab->obj_exts is clear in a newly allocated slab page

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: slab: ensure slab->obj_exts is clear in a newly allocated slab page ktest recently reported crashes while running several buffered io tests with __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook() at the top of the crash call stack. The signature indicates an invalid address dereference with low bits of slab->obj_exts being set. The bits were outside of the range used by page_memcg_data_flags and objext_flags and hence were not masked out by slab_obj_exts() when obtaining the pointer stored in slab->obj_exts. The typical crash log looks like this: 00510 Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000010 00510 Mem abort info: 00510 ESR = 0x0000000096000045 00510 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits 00510 SET = 0, FnV = 0 00510 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 00510 FSC = 0x05: level 1 translation fault 00510 Data abort info: 00510 ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000045, ISS2 = 0x00000000 00510 CM = 0, WnR = 1, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 00510 GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 00510 user pgtable: 4k pages, 39-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000104175000 00510 [0000000000000010] pgd=0000000000000000, p4d=0000000000000000, pud=0000000000000000 00510 Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000045 [#1] SMP 00510 Modules linked in: 00510 CPU: 10 UID: 0 PID: 7692 Comm: cat Not tainted 6.15.0-rc1-ktest-g189e17946605 #19327 NONE 00510 Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) 00510 pstate: 20001005 (nzCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT +SSBS BTYPE=--) 00510 pc : __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook+0xe0/0x190 00510 lr : __kmalloc_noprof+0x150/0x310 00510 sp : ffffff80c87df6c0 00510 x29: ffffff80c87df6c0 x28: 000000000013d1ff x27: 000000000013d200 00510 x26: ffffff80c87df9e0 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 0000000000000001 00510 x23: ffffffc08041953c x22: 000000000000004c x21: ffffff80c0002180 00510 x20: fffffffec3120840 x19: ffffff80c4821000 x18: 0000000000000000 00510 x17: fffffffec3d02f00 x16: fffffffec3d02e00 x15: fffffffec3d00700 00510 x14: fffffffec3d00600 x13: 0000000000000200 x12: 0000000000000006 00510 x11: ffffffc080bb86c0 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffffc080201e58 00510 x8 : ffffff80c4821060 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000055555556 00510 x5 : 0000000000000001 x4 : 0000000000000010 x3 : 0000000000000060 00510 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffffffc080f50cf8 x0 : ffffff80d801d000 00510 Call trace: 00510 __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook+0xe0/0x190 (P) 00510 __kmalloc_noprof+0x150/0x310 00510 __bch2_folio_create+0x5c/0xf8 00510 bch2_folio_create+0x2c/0x40 00510 bch2_readahead+0xc0/0x460 00510 read_pages+0x7c/0x230 00510 page_cache_ra_order+0x244/0x3a8 00510 page_cache_async_ra+0x124/0x170 00510 filemap_readahead.isra.0+0x58/0xa0 00510 filemap_get_pages+0x454/0x7b0 00510 filemap_read+0xdc/0x418 00510 bch2_read_iter+0x100/0x1b0 00510 vfs_read+0x214/0x300 00510 ksys_read+0x6c/0x108 00510 __arm64_sys_read+0x20/0x30 00510 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0x54/0xe8 00510 do_el0_svc+0x44/0xc8 00510 el0_svc+0x18/0x58 00510 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x104/0x130 00510 el0t_64_sync+0x154/0x158 00510 Code: d5384100 f9401c01 b9401aa3 b40002e1 (f8227881) 00510 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- 00510 Kernel panic - not syncing: Oops: Fatal exception 00510 SMP: stopping secondary CPUs 00510 Kernel Offset: disabled 00510 CPU features: 0x0000,000000e0,00000410,8240500b 00510 Memory Limit: none Investigation indicates that these bits are already set when we allocate slab page and are not zeroed out after allocation. We are not yet sure why these crashes start happening only recently but regardless of the reason, not initializing a field that gets used later is wrong. Fix it by initializing slab->obj_exts during slab page allocation.

Published: 2025-05-01 Last update: 2025-11-06 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-37774 is rated Low Risk (29.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-37774

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-10 0.02% 0.07% +0.05%
2 2025-05-02 0.02%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-37774

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-37774

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-37774

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-37774 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-37774
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37774
suse medium CVE-2025-37774 severity moderate: SUSE including 52 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 290 product×package rows across 52 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (52 product lines)): Known Not Affected 264, Fixed 26. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37774/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-37774 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 161, not-affected 143, released 100, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-37774

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-37774

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.10, < 6.12.25 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.14.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.15 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.15:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-37774

cvelogic Threat Intelligence