CVE-2025-38173 | crypto: marvell/cesa - Handle zero-length skcipher requests

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: marvell/cesa - Handle zero-length skcipher requests Do not access random memory for zero-length skcipher requests. Just return 0.

Published: 2025-07-03 Last update: 2025-12-18 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-38173 is rated Low Risk (32.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.12%). 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-2025-38173

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 2026-04-29 0.03% 0.12% +0.09%
2 2025-12-19 0.05% 0.03% -0.02%
3 2025-10-17 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38173

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-2025-38173

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38173

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-38173 not yet assigned 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-2025-38173
redhat — — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38173
suse medium CVE-2025-38173 severity moderate: SUSE including 492 source package names (2.1.3-6.67:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-32.1.21.10, 2.1.3-7.44:kernel-default-6.4.0-32.1, …), 994 product×package rows across 199 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (199 product lines)): Fixed 704, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 38, First Fixed 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38173/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38173 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, released 169, ignored 167, needed 44, not-affected 23, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38173

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38173

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 4.2, < 5.4.295 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.239 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.186 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.142 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.94 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38173

URL Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/32d3e8049a8b60f18c5c39f5931bfb1130ac11c9 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5e9666ac8b94c978690f937d59170c5237bd2c45 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7894694b5d5b2ecfd7fb081d6f60b9e169ab4d13 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78ea1ff6cb413a03ff6f7af4e28e24b4461a0965 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8a4e047c6cc07676f637608a9dd675349b5de0a7 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c064ae2881d839709bd72d484d5f2af157f46024 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c9610dda42bd382a96f97e68825cb5f66cd9e1dc Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e1cc69da619588b1488689fe3535a0ba75a2b0e7 Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html Third Party Advisory
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