Vulnerability Database

373,546

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-38427 — linux / linux_kernel

Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

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

video: screen_info: Relocate framebuffers behind PCI bridges

Apply PCI host-bridge window offsets to screen_info framebuffers. Fixes invalid access to I/O memory.

Resources behind a PCI host bridge can be relocated by a certain offset in the kernel's CPU address range used for I/O. The framebuffer memory range stored in screen_info refers to the CPU addresses as seen during boot (where the offset is 0). During boot up, firmware may assign a different memory offset to the PCI host bridge and thereby relocating the framebuffer address of the PCI graphics device as seen by the kernel. The information in screen_info must be updated as well.

The helper pcibios_bus_to_resource() performs the relocation of the screen_info's framebuffer resource (given in PCI bus addresses). The result matches the I/O-memory resource of the PCI graphics device (given in CPU addresses). As before, we store away the information necessary to later update the information in screen_info itself.

Commit 78aa89d1dfba ("firmware/sysfb: Update screen_info for relocated EFI framebuffers") added the code for updating screen_info. It is based on similar functionality that pre-existed in efifb. Efifb uses a pointer to the PCI resource, while the newer code does a memcpy of the region. Hence efifb sees any updates to the PCI resource and avoids the issue.

v3:

  • Only use struct pci_bus_region for PCI bus addresses (Bjorn)
  • Clarify address semantics in commit messages and comments (Bjorn) v2:
  • Fixed tags (Takashi, Ivan)
  • Updated information on efifb
  • Published: Jul 25, 2025
  • Updated: Nov 20, 2025
  • CVE: CVE-2025-38427
  • 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:

Frequently Asked Questions

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.