In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix use-after-free in crypt_message when using async crypto The CVE-2024-50047 fix removed asynchronous crypto handling from crypt_message(), assuming all crypto operations are synchronous. However, when hardware crypto accelerators are used, this can cause use-after-free crashes: crypt_message() // Allocate the creq buffer containing the req creq = smb2_get_aead_req(..., &req); // Async encryption returns -EINPROGRESS immediately rc = enc ? crypto_aead_encrypt(req) : crypto_aead_decrypt(req); // Free creq while async operation is still in progress kvfree_sensitive(creq, ...); Hardware crypto modules often implement async AEAD operations for performance. When crypto_aead_encrypt/decrypt() returns -EINPROGRESS, the operation completes asynchronously. Without crypto_wait_req(), the function immediately frees the request buffer, leading to crashes when the driver later accesses the freed memory. This results in a use-after-free condition when the hardware crypto driver later accesses the freed request structure, leading to kernel crashes with NULL pointer dereferences. The issue occurs because crypto_alloc_aead() with mask=0 doesn't guarantee synchronous operation. Even without CRYPTO_ALG_ASYNC in the mask, async implementations can be selected. Fix by restoring the async crypto handling: - DECLARE_CRYPTO_WAIT(wait) for completion tracking - aead_request_set_callback() for async completion notification - crypto_wait_req() to wait for operation completion This ensures the request buffer isn't freed until the crypto operation completes, whether synchronous or asynchronous, while preserving the CVE-2024-50047 fix.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38488 is rated Low Risk (31.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). 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 | 2025-07-28 | — | 0.01% | — |
Full EPSS history (1 record total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.8 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
1.8 | 5.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2025-38488 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-2025-38488 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38488 |
suse
|
high | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38488/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-38488 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 169, ignored 157, not-affected 41, needed 26, needs-triage 2, pending 2. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38488 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.10.237, < 5.10.241 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.15.181, < 5.15.190 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.1.128, < 6.1.147 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.6.57, < 6.6.100 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.11.4, < 6.12.40 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.13, < 6.15.8 | 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:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.16 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.16 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.16 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| debian | debian_linux | 11.0 | cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |