CVE-2025-38615 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: cancle set bad inode after removing name fails The reproducer uses a file0 on a ntfs3 file system with a corrupted i_link. When renaming, the file0's inode is marked as a bad inode because the file name cannot be deleted. The underlying bug is that make_bad_inode() is called on a live inode. In some cases it's "icache lookup finds a normal inode, d_splice_alias() is called to attach it to dentry, while another thread decides to call make_bad_inode() on it - that would evict it from icache, but we'd already found it there earlier". In some it's outright "we have an inode attached to dentry - that's how we got it in the first place; let's call make_bad_inode() on it just for shits and giggles".

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.02%	0.14%	+0.13%
2	2025-08-20	—	0.02%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.02%

0.14%

+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-2025-38615

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2025-38615 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1.	https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38615
`redhat`	—	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38615
`suse`	medium	CVE-2025-38615 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 291 product×package rows across 57 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7, … (57 product lines)): Known Not Affected 291.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38615/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2025-38615 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-2025-38615

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38615

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.15, < 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-2025-38615

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/358d4f821c03add421a4c49290538a705852ccf1	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3ed2cc6a6e93fbeb8c0cafce1e7fb1f64a331dcc	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a285395020780adac1ffbc844069c3d700bf007a	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b35a50d639ca5259466ef5fea85529bb4fb17d5b	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d99208b91933fd2a58ed9ed321af07dacd06ddc3	Patch

URL

CVE-2025-38615 | fs/ntfs3: cancle set bad inode after removing name fails

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-38615

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38615

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38615

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38615

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38615

References for CVE-2025-38615