GHSA-xfr8-3rww-p6wv · Severity: medium — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fbdev: Fix...
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fbdev: Fix do_register_framebuffer to prevent null-ptr-deref in fb_videomode_to_var If fb_add_videomode() in do_register_framebuffer() fails to allocate memory for fb_videomode, it will later lead to a null-ptr dereference in fb_videomode_to_var(), as the fb_info is registered while not having the mode in modelist that is expected to be there, i.e. the one that is described in fb_info->var. ================================================================ general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000001: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000008-0x000000000000000f] CPU: 1 PID: 30371 Comm: syz-executor.1 Not tainted 5.10.226-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.12.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:fb_videomode_to_var+0x24/0x610 drivers/video/fbdev/core/modedb.c:901 Call Trace: display_to_var+0x3a/0x7c0 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c:929 fbcon_resize+0x3e2/0x8f0 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c:2071 resize_screen drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1176 [inline] vc_do_resize+0x53a/0x1170 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:1263 fbcon_modechanged+0x3ac/0x6e0 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c:2720 fbcon_update_vcs+0x43/0x60 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c:2776 do_fb_ioctl+0x6d2/0x740 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbmem.c:1128 fb_ioctl+0xe7/0x150 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbmem.c:1203 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:48 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:753 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:739 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x19a/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:739 do_syscall_64+0x33/0x40 arch/x86/entry/common.c:46 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0xd1 ================================================================ Even though fbcon_init() checks beforehand if fb_match_mode() in var_to_display() fails, it can not prevent the panic because fbcon_init() does not return error code. Considering this and the comment in the code about fb_match_mode() returning NULL - "This should not happen" - it is better to prevent registering the fb_info if its mode was not set successfully. Also move fb_add_videomode() closer to the beginning of do_register_framebuffer() to avoid having to do the cleanup on fail. Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38215 is rated Low Risk (30.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.08%). 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.
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 | 2026-04-30 | 0.03% | 0.08% | +0.05% |
| 2 | 2025-12-19 | 0.06% | 0.03% | -0.03% |
| 3 | 2025-12-12 | — | 0.06% | — |
Full EPSS history (8 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
GHSA-xfr8-3rww-p6wv · Severity: medium — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fbdev: Fix...
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2025-38215 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 5, open 1. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38215 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38215 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2025-38215 severity moderate: SUSE including 473 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, …), 932 product×package rows across 178 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (178 product lines)): Fixed 627, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 53, First Fixed 21. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38215/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-38215 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 169, released 138, needed 76, not-affected 20, needs-triage 2, pending 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38215 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 2.6.13, < 6.1.143 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.2, < 6.6.95 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.7, < 6.12.35 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.13, < 6.15.4 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 2.6.12 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:-:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 2.6.12 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 2.6.12 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 2.6.12 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 2.6.12 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| debian | debian_linux | 11.0 | cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |