CVE-2025-38233 | powerpc64/ftrace: fix clobbered r15 during livepatching

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc64/ftrace: fix clobbered r15 during livepatching While r15 is clobbered always with PPC_FTRACE_OUT_OF_LINE, it is not restored in livepatch sequence leading to not so obvious fails like below: BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on write at 0xc0000000000f9078 Faulting instruction address: 0xc0000000018ff958 Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1] ... NIP: c0000000018ff958 LR: c0000000018ff930 CTR: c0000000009c0790 REGS: c00000005f2e7790 TRAP: 0300 Tainted: G K (6.14.0+) MSR: 8000000000009033 <SF,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 2822880b XER: 20040000 CFAR: c0000000008addc0 DAR: c0000000000f9078 DSISR: 0a000000 IRQMASK: 1 GPR00: c0000000018f2584 c00000005f2e7a30 c00000000280a900 c000000017ffa488 GPR04: 0000000000000008 0000000000000000 c0000000018f24fc 000000000000000d GPR08: fffffffffffe0000 000000000000000d 0000000000000000 0000000000008000 GPR12: c0000000009c0790 c000000017ffa480 c00000005f2e7c78 c0000000000f9070 GPR16: c00000005f2e7c90 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR20: 0000000000000000 c00000005f3efa80 c00000005f2e7c60 c00000005f2e7c88 GPR24: c00000005f2e7c60 0000000000000001 c0000000000f9078 0000000000000000 GPR28: 00007fff97960000 c000000017ffa480 0000000000000000 c0000000000f9078 ... Call Trace: check_heap_object+0x34/0x390 (unreliable) __mutex_unlock_slowpath.isra.0+0xe4/0x230 seq_read_iter+0x430/0xa90 proc_reg_read_iter+0xa4/0x200 vfs_read+0x41c/0x510 ksys_read+0xa4/0x190 system_call_exception+0x1d0/0x440 system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec Fix it by restoring r15 always.

Published: 2025-07-04 Last update: 2025-11-18 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-2025-38233 is rated Low Risk (39.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.08%). 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-2025-38233

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 0.02% 0.08% +0.06%
2 2025-07-05 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38233

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38233

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38233

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-38233 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-2025-38233
redhat — — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38233
suse medium CVE-2025-38233 severity moderate: SUSE including 94 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-64kb-6.12.0-160000.6.1, cluster-md-kmp-default, …), 481 product×package rows across 86 product lines (Image SLES-Azure-3P, Image SLES-Azure-Basic, … (86 product lines)): Known Not Affected 283, Fixed 177, First Fixed 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38233/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38233 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 151, not-affected 146, released 107, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38233

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38233

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38233

cvelogic Threat Intelligence