CVE-2025-38497 | usb: gadget: configfs: Fix OOB read on empty string write

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: usb: gadget: configfs: Fix OOB read on empty string write When writing an empty string to either 'qw_sign' or 'landingPage' sysfs attributes, the store functions attempt to access page[l - 1] before validating that the length 'l' is greater than zero. This patch fixes the vulnerability by adding a check at the beginning of os_desc_qw_sign_store() and webusb_landingPage_store() to handle the zero-length input case gracefully by returning immediately.

Published: 2025-07-28 Last update: 2026-01-07 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38497 is rated Low Risk (35.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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-2025-38497

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 2026-05-24 0.01% 0.07% +0.05%
2 2026-01-08 0.06% 0.01% -0.05%
3 2026-01-05 0.06%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38497

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big 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 5.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38497

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38497

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-38497 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-2025-38497
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38497
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38497/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38497 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 161, needed 46, not-affected 17, needs-triage 2, pending 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38497

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38497

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 3.16, < 5.4.297 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.241 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.190 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.147 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.100 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38497

URL Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15a87206879951712915c03c8952a73d6a74721e Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22b7897c289cc25d99c603f5144096142a30d897 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2798111f8e504ac747cce911226135d50b8de468 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3014168731b7930300aab656085af784edc861f6 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/58bdd5160184645771553ea732da5c2887fc9bd1 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/783ea37b237a9b524f1e5ca018ea17d772ee0ea0 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78b41148cfea2a3f04d87adf3a71b21735820a37 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d68b7c8fefbaeae8f065b84e40cf64baf4cc0c76 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