Vulnerability Database

352,427

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-38569 — linux / linux_kernel

NULL Pointer Dereference

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

benet: fix BUG when creating VFs

benet crashes as soon as SRIOV VFs are created:

kernel BUG at mm/vmalloc.c:3457! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 7408 Comm: test.sh Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.16.0+ #1 PREEMPT(voluntary) [...] RIP: 0010:vunmap+0x5f/0x70 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> __iommu_dma_free+0xe8/0x1c0 be_cmd_set_mac_list+0x3fe/0x640 [be2net] be_cmd_set_mac+0xaf/0x110 [be2net] be_vf_eth_addr_config+0x19f/0x330 [be2net] be_vf_setup+0x4f7/0x990 [be2net] be_pci_sriov_configure+0x3a1/0x470 [be2net] sriov_numvfs_store+0x20b/0x380 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x354/0x530 vfs_write+0x9b9/0xf60 ksys_write+0xf3/0x1d0 do_syscall_64+0x8c/0x3d0

be_cmd_set_mac_list() calls dma_free_coherent() under a spin_lock_bh. Fix it by freeing only after the lock has been released.

  • Published: Aug 19, 2025
  • Updated: Jan 9, 2026
  • CVE: CVE-2025-38569
  • 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.

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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.

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