CVE-2025-38590 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Remove skb secpath if xfrm state is not found Hardware returns a unique identifier for a decrypted packet's xfrm state, this state is looked up in an xarray. However, the state might have been freed by the time of this lookup. Currently, if the state is not found, only a counter is incremented. The secpath (sp) extension on the skb is not removed, resulting in sp->len becoming 0. Subsequently, functions like __xfrm_policy_check() attempt to access fields such as xfrm_input_state(skb)->xso.type (which dereferences sp->xvec[sp->len - 1]) without first validating sp->len. This leads to a crash when dereferencing an invalid state pointer. This patch prevents the crash by explicitly removing the secpath extension from the skb if the xfrm state is not found after hardware decryption. This ensures downstream functions do not operate on a zero-length secpath. BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffffff000002c8 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 282e067 P4D 282e067 PUD 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP CPU: 12 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/12 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7_for_upstream_min_debug_2025_05_27_22_44 #1 NONE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:__xfrm_policy_check+0x61a/0xa30 Code: b6 77 7f 83 e6 02 74 14 4d 8b af d8 00 00 00 41 0f b6 45 05 c1 e0 03 48 98 49 01 c5 41 8b 45 00 83 e8 01 48 98 49 8b 44 c5 10 <0f> b6 80 c8 02 00 00 83 e0 0c 3c 04 0f 84 0c 02 00 00 31 ff 80 fa RSP: 0018:ffff88885fb04918 EFLAGS: 00010297 RAX: ffffffff00000000 RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: 0000000000000002 RDI: 0000000000000000 RBP: ffffffff8311af80 R08: 0000000000000020 R09: 00000000c2eda353 R10: ffff88812be2bbc8 R11: 000000001faab533 R12: ffff88885fb049c8 R13: ffff88812be2bbc8 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffff88811896ae00 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8888dca82000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffffff000002c8 CR3: 0000000243050002 CR4: 0000000000372eb0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <IRQ> ? try_to_wake_up+0x108/0x4c0 ? udp4_lib_lookup2+0xbe/0x150 ? udp_lib_lport_inuse+0x100/0x100 ? __udp4_lib_lookup+0x2b0/0x410 __xfrm_policy_check2.constprop.0+0x11e/0x130 udp_queue_rcv_one_skb+0x1d/0x530 udp_unicast_rcv_skb+0x76/0x90 __udp4_lib_rcv+0xa64/0xe90 ip_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x20/0x130 ip_local_deliver_finish+0x75/0xa0 ip_local_deliver+0xc1/0xd0 ? ip_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x130/0x130 ip_sublist_rcv+0x1f9/0x240 ? ip_rcv_finish_core+0x430/0x430 ip_list_rcv+0xfc/0x130 __netif_receive_skb_list_core+0x181/0x1e0 netif_receive_skb_list_internal+0x200/0x360 ? mlx5e_build_rx_skb+0x1bc/0xda0 [mlx5_core] gro_receive_skb+0xfd/0x210 mlx5e_handle_rx_cqe_mpwrq+0x141/0x280 [mlx5_core] mlx5e_poll_rx_cq+0xcc/0x8e0 [mlx5_core] ? mlx5e_handle_rx_dim+0x91/0xd0 [mlx5_core] mlx5e_napi_poll+0x114/0xab0 [mlx5_core] __napi_poll+0x25/0x170 net_rx_action+0x32d/0x3a0 ? mlx5_eq_comp_int+0x8d/0x280 [mlx5_core] ? notifier_call_chain+0x33/0xa0 handle_softirqs+0xda/0x250 irq_exit_rcu+0x6d/0xc0 common_interrupt+0x81/0xa0 </IRQ>

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.02%	0.15%	+0.13%
2	2025-08-20	—	0.02%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.02%

0.15%

+0.13%

2025-08-20

—

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-2025-38590

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2025-38590 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38590
`redhat`	high	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38590
`suse`	medium	CVE-2025-38590 severity moderate: SUSE including 486 source package names (13.2-9.1:libsqlite3-0-3.49.1-1.1, 2.1.3-6.35:libsqlite3-0-3.49.1-1.1, …), 935 product×package rows across 173 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, … (173 product lines)): Fixed 615, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 64, First Fixed 25.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38590/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2025-38590 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, ignored 161, released 133, not-affected 63, needed 36, needs-triage 2, pending 2.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38590

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38590

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.9, < 6.6.102	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.7, < 6.12.42	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.13, < 6.15.10	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.16, < 6.16.1	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::

References for CVE-2025-38590

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/137b12a4900eb6971b889839eab6036f72cbb217	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/314f568b84b01f6eac1e4313ca47f9ade4349443	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a5782431d84716b66302b07ff1b32fea1023bd5	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6d19c44b5c6dd72f9a357d0399604ec16a77de3c	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/781a0bbf377443ef06f3248221f06cb555935530	Patch

URL

CVE-2025-38590 | net/mlx5e: Remove skb secpath if xfrm state is not found

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-38590

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38590

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38590

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38590

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38590

References for CVE-2025-38590