Vulnerability Database

352,427

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-38684 — linux / linux_kernel

NULL Pointer Dereference

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

net/sched: ets: use old 'nbands' while purging unused classes

Shuang reported sch_ets test-case [1] crashing in ets_class_qlen_notify() after recent changes from Lion [2]. The problem is: in ets_qdisc_change() we purge unused DWRR queues; the value of 'q->nbands' is the new one, and the cleanup should be done with the old one. The problem is here since my first attempts to fix ets_qdisc_change(), but it surfaced again after the recent qdisc len accounting fixes. Fix it purging idle DWRR queues before assigning a new value of 'q->nbands', so that all purge operations find a consistent configuration:

  • old 'q->nbands' because it's needed by ets_class_find()
  • old 'q->nstrict' because it's needed by ets_class_is_strict()

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 62 UID: 0 PID: 39457 Comm: tc Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.12.0-116.el10.x86_64 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R640/06DKY5, BIOS 2.12.2 07/09/2021 RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid_or_report+0x4/0x80 Code: ff 4c 39 c7 0f 84 39 19 8e ff b8 01 00 00 00 c3 cc cc cc cc 66 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa <48> 8b 17 48 8b 4f 08 48 85 d2 0f 84 56 19 8e ff 48 85 c9 0f 84 ab RSP: 0018:ffffba186009f400 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: 00000000000000d6 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000004 RDX: ffff9f0fa29b69c0 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000 RBP: ffffffffc12c2400 R08: 0000000000000008 R09: 0000000000000004 R10: ffffffffffffffff R11: 0000000000000004 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: ffff9f0f8cfe0000 R14: 0000000000100005 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 00007f2154f37480(0000) GS:ffff9f269c1c0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 00000001530be001 CR4: 00000000007726f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> ets_class_qlen_notify+0x65/0x90 [sch_ets] qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog+0x74/0x110 ets_qdisc_change+0x630/0xa40 [sch_ets] __tc_modify_qdisc.constprop.0+0x216/0x7f0 tc_modify_qdisc+0x7c/0x120 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x145/0x3f0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x53/0x100 netlink_unicast+0x245/0x390 netlink_sendmsg+0x21b/0x470 ____sys_sendmsg+0x39d/0x3d0 ___sys_sendmsg+0x9a/0xe0 __sys_sendmsg+0x7a/0xd0 do_syscall_64+0x7d/0x160 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f2155114084 Code: 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff eb bb 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 00 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d 25 f0 0c 00 00 74 13 b8 2e 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 54 c3 0f 1f 00 48 83 ec 28 89 54 24 1c 48 89 RSP: 002b:00007fff1fd7a988 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000560ec063e5e0 RCX: 00007f2155114084 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007fff1fd7a9f0 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007fff1fd7aa60 R08: 0000000000000010 R09: 000000000000003f R10: 0000560ee9b3a010 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 00007fff1fd7aae0 R13: 000000006891ccde R14: 0000560ec063e5e0 R15: 00007fff1fd7aad0 </TASK>

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/e08c7f4a6882f260011909a868311c6e9b54f3e4.1639153474.git.dcaratti@redhat.com/ [2] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/

  • Published: Sep 4, 2025
  • Updated: Jan 9, 2026
  • CVE: CVE-2025-38684
  • 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.