CVE-2025-38164 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: zone: fix to avoid inconsistence in between SIT and SSA w/ below testcase, it will cause inconsistence in between SIT and SSA. create_null_blk 512 2 1024 1024 mkfs.f2fs -m /dev/nullb0 mount /dev/nullb0 /mnt/f2fs/ touch /mnt/f2fs/file f2fs_io pinfile set /mnt/f2fs/file fallocate -l 4GiB /mnt/f2fs/file F2FS-fs (nullb0): Inconsistent segment (0) type [1, 0] in SSA and SIT CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 2398 Comm: fallocate Tainted: G O 6.13.0-rc1 #84 Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE Hardware name: innotek GmbH VirtualBox/VirtualBox, BIOS VirtualBox 12/01/2006 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0xb3/0xd0 dump_stack+0x14/0x20 f2fs_handle_critical_error+0x18c/0x220 [f2fs] f2fs_stop_checkpoint+0x38/0x50 [f2fs] do_garbage_collect+0x674/0x6e0 [f2fs] f2fs_gc_range+0x12b/0x230 [f2fs] f2fs_allocate_pinning_section+0x5c/0x150 [f2fs] f2fs_expand_inode_data+0x1cc/0x3c0 [f2fs] f2fs_fallocate+0x3c3/0x410 [f2fs] vfs_fallocate+0x15f/0x4b0 __x64_sys_fallocate+0x4a/0x80 x64_sys_call+0x15e8/0x1b80 do_syscall_64+0x68/0x130 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0x6f RIP: 0033:0x7f9dba5197ca F2FS-fs (nullb0): Stopped filesystem due to reason: 4 The reason is f2fs_gc_range() may try to migrate block in curseg, however, its SSA block is not uptodate due to the last summary block data is still in cache of curseg. In this patch, we add a condition in f2fs_gc_range() to check whether section is opened or not, and skip block migration for opened section.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-04-29	0.02%	0.07%	+0.05%
2	2025-07-03	—	0.02%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-04-29

0.02%

0.07%

+0.05%

2025-07-03

—

0.02%

—

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]

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]

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38164

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2025-38164 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-2025-38164
`redhat`	—	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38164
`suse`	medium	CVE-2025-38164 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 283 product×package rows across 55 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (55 product lines)): Known Not Affected 283.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38164/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2025-38164 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 137, not-affected 100, needed 2, needs-triage 2, pending 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38164

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38164

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.6.33, < 6.7	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.9, < 6.12.34	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.13, < 6.15.3	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::

References for CVE-2025-38164

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/44a51592ac657d8e422585414d7ec17a5b50fb0e	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/773704c1ef96a8b70d0d186ab725f50548de82c4	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d9431b0d11a5030aa1ce477defee455b3821701	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d1365d2abfaf2d85ee51a005da3ca373aea97f6a

URL

CVE-2025-38164 | f2fs: zone: fix to avoid inconsistence in between SIT and SSA

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-38164

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38164

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38164

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38164

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38164

References for CVE-2025-38164