How should we interpret CVSS severity scores?

CVSS estimates technical severity, but it does not automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, asset criticality, known exploitation, and whether compensating controls exist. A Medium CVSS on an exposed production system can be more urgent than a Critical on an isolated non-production host.

Vulnerability Database

Q: What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

Q: What's the difference between a vulnerability, an exploit, and a zero-day?

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. Risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Q: Why do vulnerabilities keep reappearing in our environment?

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete asset discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host.

Q: How do we prioritize remediation without burning out the team?

Use a repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress so remediation is steady, not reactive.

Q: How can SynScan help reduce vulnerability risk over time?

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.

373,546

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-38299 — linux / linux_kernel

NULL Pointer Dereference

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ASoC: mediatek: mt8195: Set ETDM1/2 IN/OUT to COMP_DUMMY()

ETDM2_IN_BE and ETDM1_OUT_BE are defined as COMP_EMPTY(), in the case the codec dai_name will be null.

Avoid a crash if the device tree is not assigning a codec to these links.

[ 1.179936] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 [ 1.181065] Mem abort info: [ 1.181420] ESR = 0x0000000096000004 [ 1.181892] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 1.182576] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 1.182964] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 1.183367] FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault [ 1.183983] Data abort info: [ 1.184406] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 1.185097] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 1.185766] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 1.186439] [0000000000000000] user address but active_mm is swapper [ 1.187239] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1] PREEMPT SMP [ 1.188029] Modules linked in: [ 1.188420] CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 70 Comm: kworker/u32:1 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc4-next-20250226+ #85 [ 1.189515] Hardware name: Radxa NIO 12L (DT) [ 1.190065] Workqueue: events_unbound deferred_probe_work_func [ 1.190808] pstate: 40400009 (nZcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 1.191683] pc : __pi_strcmp+0x24/0x140 [ 1.192170] lr : mt8195_mt6359_soc_card_probe+0x224/0x7b0 [ 1.192854] sp : ffff800083473970 [ 1.193271] x29: ffff800083473a10 x28: 0000000000001008 x27: 0000000000000002 [ 1.194168] x26: ffff800082408960 x25: ffff800082417db0 x24: ffff800082417d88 [ 1.195065] x23: 000000000000001e x22: ffff800082dbf480 x21: ffff800082dc07b8 [ 1.195961] x20: 0000000000000000 x19: 0000000000000013 x18: 00000000ffffffff [ 1.196858] x17: 000000040044ffff x16: 005000f2b5503510 x15: 0000000000000006 [ 1.197755] x14: ffff800082407af0 x13: 6e6f69737265766e x12: 692d6b636f6c6374 [ 1.198651] x11: 0000000000000002 x10: ffff80008240b920 x9 : 0000000000000018 [ 1.199547] x8 : 0101010101010101 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.200443] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 8080808080000000 x3 : 303933383978616d [ 1.201339] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff80008240b920 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.202236] Call trace: [ 1.202545] __pi_strcmp+0x24/0x140 (P) [ 1.203029] mtk_soundcard_common_probe+0x3bc/0x5b8 [ 1.203644] platform_probe+0x70/0xe8 [ 1.204106] really_probe+0xc8/0x3a0 [ 1.204556] __driver_probe_device+0x84/0x160 [ 1.205104] driver_probe_device+0x44/0x130 [ 1.205630] __device_attach_driver+0xc4/0x170 [ 1.206189] bus_for_each_drv+0x8c/0xf8 [ 1.206672] __device_attach+0xa8/0x1c8 [ 1.207155] device_initial_probe+0x1c/0x30 [ 1.207681] bus_probe_device+0xb0/0xc0 [ 1.208165] deferred_probe_work_func+0xa4/0x100 [ 1.208747] process_one_work+0x158/0x3e0 [ 1.209254] worker_thread+0x2c4/0x3e8 [ 1.209727] kthread+0x134/0x1f0 [ 1.210136] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 1.210589] Code: 54000401 b50002c6 d503201f f86a6803 (f8408402) [ 1.211355] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

Published: Jul 10, 2025
Updated: Nov 20, 2025
CVE: CVE-2025-38299
Severity: Medium
Exploit:
CISA KEV:

CVSS v3:

Severity: Medium
Score: 5.5
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWEs:

CWE-476

Affected Software
References

Software	From	Fixed in
linux / linux_kernel	6.8	6.12.34
linux / linux_kernel	6.13	6.15.3

Deep Security Visibility Without the Complexity

SynScan provides clear, real-time security insights so you can monitor your attack surface, spot risks early, and act fast—without extra complexity.

No setup fees
5-min deployment
Cancel anytime

Book a Demo

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.