CVE-2025-38386 | ACPICA: Refuse to evaluate a method if arguments are missing

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ACPICA: Refuse to evaluate a method if arguments are missing As reported in [1], a platform firmware update that increased the number of method parameters and forgot to update a least one of its callers, caused ACPICA to crash due to use-after-free. Since this a result of a clear AML issue that arguably cannot be fixed up by the interpreter (it cannot produce missing data out of thin air), address it by making ACPICA refuse to evaluate a method if the caller attempts to pass fewer arguments than expected to it.

Published: 2025-07-25 Last update: 2025-12-16 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38386 is rated Low Risk (27.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-38386

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 2026-05-21 0.03% 0.05% +0.02%
2 2025-12-16 0.06% 0.03% -0.04%
3 2025-11-24 0.06%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38386

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-2025-38386

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38386

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-38386 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-2025-38386
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38386
suse medium CVE-2025-38386 severity moderate: SUSE including 487 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, …), 981 product×package rows across 196 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (196 product lines)): Fixed 704, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 25, First Fixed 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38386/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38386 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1414 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1017, released 170, ignored 159, needed 45, not-affected 20, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38386

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38386

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel < 5.4.296 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.240 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.187 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.144 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.97 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.37 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.6 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:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38386

URL Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18ff4ed6a33a7e3f2097710eacc96bea7696e803 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2219e49857ffd6aea1b1ca5214d3270f84623a16 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4305d936abde795c2ef6ba916de8f00a50f64d2d Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6fcab2791543924d438e7fa49276d0998b0a069f Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab1e8491c19eb2ea0fda81ef28e841c7cb6399f5 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b49d224d1830c46e20adce2a239c454cdab426f1 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c9e4da550ae196132b990bd77ed3d8f2d9747f87 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d547779e72cea9865b732cd45393c4cd02b3598e 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
cvelogic Threat Intelligence