CVE-2025-38256 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring/rsrc: fix folio unpinning syzbot complains about an unmapping failure: [ 108.070381][ T14] kernel BUG at mm/gup.c:71! [ 108.070502][ T14] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP [ 108.123672][ T14] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS edk2-20250221-8.fc42 02/21/2025 [ 108.127458][ T14] Workqueue: iou_exit io_ring_exit_work [ 108.174205][ T14] Call trace: [ 108.175649][ T14] sanity_check_pinned_pages+0x7cc/0x7d0 (P) [ 108.178138][ T14] unpin_user_page+0x80/0x10c [ 108.180189][ T14] io_release_ubuf+0x84/0xf8 [ 108.182196][ T14] io_free_rsrc_node+0x250/0x57c [ 108.184345][ T14] io_rsrc_data_free+0x148/0x298 [ 108.186493][ T14] io_sqe_buffers_unregister+0x84/0xa0 [ 108.188991][ T14] io_ring_ctx_free+0x48/0x480 [ 108.191057][ T14] io_ring_exit_work+0x764/0x7d8 [ 108.193207][ T14] process_one_work+0x7e8/0x155c [ 108.195431][ T14] worker_thread+0x958/0xed8 [ 108.197561][ T14] kthread+0x5fc/0x75c [ 108.199362][ T14] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 We can pin a tail page of a folio, but then io_uring will try to unpin the head page of the folio. While it should be fine in terms of keeping the page actually alive, mm folks say it's wrong and triggers a debug warning. Use unpin_user_folio() instead of unpin_user_page*. [axboe: adapt to current tree, massage commit message]

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-07-09	—	0.02%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-07-09

—

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-2025-38256

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2025-38256 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-2025-38256
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38256
`suse`	medium	CVE-2025-38256 severity moderate: SUSE including 358 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 851 product×package rows across 133 product lines (Image SLES-Azure-3P, Image SLES-Azure-Basic, … (133 product lines)): Fixed 311, Known Not Affected 288, Known Affected 231, First Fixed 21.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38256/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2025-38256 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1548 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1142, ignored 151, not-affected 145, released 108, needs-triage 2.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38256

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38256

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.12, < 6.12.36	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.13, < 6.15.5	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.16	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc1::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.16	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc2::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.16	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc3::::::

References for CVE-2025-38256

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/11e7b7369e655e6131387b174218d7fa9557b3da	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/53fd75f25b223878b5fff14932e3a22f42b54f77	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5afb4bf9fc62d828647647ec31745083637132e4	Patch

URL

CVE-2025-38256 | io_uring/rsrc: fix folio unpinning

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-38256

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38256

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38256

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38256

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38256

References for CVE-2025-38256