CVE-2025-37938 | tracing: Verify event formats that have "%*p.."

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Verify event formats that have "%*p.." The trace event verifier checks the formats of trace events to make sure that they do not point at memory that is not in the trace event itself or in data that will never be freed. If an event references data that was allocated when the event triggered and that same data is freed before the event is read, then the kernel can crash by reading freed memory. The verifier runs at boot up (or module load) and scans the print formats of the events and checks their arguments to make sure that dereferenced pointers are safe. If the format uses "%*p.." the verifier will ignore it, and that could be dangerous. Cover this case as well. Also add to the sample code a use case of "%*pbl".

Published: 2025-05-20 Last update: 2025-12-19 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-37938 is rated Low Risk (29.4/100): 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-2025-37938

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 2026-03-16 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
2 2025-11-21 0.06% 0.04% -0.02%
3 2025-11-18 0.06%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-37938

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-2025-37938

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-37938

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-37938 unimportant priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 6. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-37938
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37938
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37938/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-37938 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 164, released 130, not-affected 74, needed 35, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-37938

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-37938

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.13, < 6.1.136 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.89 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.26 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.11 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.14, < 6.14.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-37938

cvelogic Threat Intelligence