CVE-2025-38691 | pNFS: Fix uninited ptr deref in block/scsi layout

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pNFS: Fix uninited ptr deref in block/scsi layout The error occurs on the third attempt to encode extents. When function ext_tree_prepare_commit() reallocates a larger buffer to retry encoding extents, the "layoutupdate_pages" page array is initialized only after the retry loop. But ext_tree_free_commitdata() is called on every iteration and tries to put pages in the array, thus dereferencing uninitialized pointers. An additional problem is that there is no limit on the maximum possible buffer_size. When there are too many extents, the client may create a layoutcommit that is larger than the maximum possible RPC size accepted by the server. During testing, we observed two typical scenarios. First, one memory page for extents is enough when we work with small files, append data to the end of the file, or preallocate extents before writing. But when we fill a new large file without preallocating, the number of extents can be huge, and counting the number of written extents in ext_tree_encode_commit() does not help much. Since this number increases even more between unlocking and locking of ext_tree, the reallocated buffer may not be large enough again and again.

Published: 2025-09-04 Last update: 2026-05-12 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38691 is rated Low Risk (24.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.17%). 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-2025-38691

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 2026-06-15 0.02% 0.17% +0.14%
2 2026-01-10 0.06% 0.02% -0.04%
3 2026-01-04 0.06%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38691

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-2025-38691

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-38691

GHSA-94hx-q75x-2q84 · Severity: medium — In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pNFS: Fix uninited ptr deref...

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38691

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-38691 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-2025-38691
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38691
suse medium CVE-2025-38691 severity moderate: SUSE including 476 source package names (2.1.3-6.80:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-35.1.21.12, 2.1.3-7.57:kernel-default-6.4.0-35.1, …), 978 product×package rows across 195 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (195 product lines)): Fixed 696, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 30, First Fixed 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38691/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38691 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 180, released 150, needed 48, not-affected 16, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38691

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38691

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 3.18, < 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, < 6.1.149 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.103 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.43 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.11 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.16, < 6.16.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38691

URL Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/24334f3cf8a294f253071b5bf22d754dbb6d0f2d Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2896f101110076ac6bf99d7aaf463d61e26f89dd Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/37c3443a2685528f972d910a6fb87716b96fef46 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4f783333cbfa2ee7d4aa8e47f6bd1b3f77534fcf Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/579b85f893d9885162e1cabf99a4a088916e143e Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/94ec6d939031a616474376dadbf4a8d0ef8b0bcc Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9768797c219326699778fba9cd3b607b2f1e7950 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9be5c04beca3202d0a5f09fb4b2ecb644caa0bc5 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f0b2eee3fbba9b7e3746ef698424ef5e4a197776 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
https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-032379.html
https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-082556.html
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