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.

374,345

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2025-39895 — linux / linux_kernel

NULL Pointer Dereference

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

sched: Fix sched_numa_find_nth_cpu() if mask offline

sched_numa_find_nth_cpu() uses a bsearch to look for the 'closest' CPU in sched_domains_numa_masks and given cpus mask. However they might not intersect if all CPUs in the cpus mask are offline. bsearch will return NULL in that case, bail out instead of dereferencing a bogus pointer.

The previous behaviour lead to this bug when using maxcpus=4 on an rk3399 (LLLLbb) (i.e. booting with all big CPUs offline):

[ 1.422922] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffffff8000000000 [ 1.423635] Mem abort info: [ 1.423889] ESR = 0x0000000096000006 [ 1.424227] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 1.424715] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 1.424995] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 1.425279] FSC = 0x06: level 2 translation fault [ 1.425735] Data abort info: [ 1.425998] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000006, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 1.426499] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 1.426952] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 1.427428] swapper pgtable: 4k pages, 39-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000004a9f000 [ 1.428038] [ffffff8000000000] pgd=18000000f7fff403, p4d=18000000f7fff403, pud=18000000f7fff403, pmd=0000000000000000 [ 1.429014] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000006 [#1] SMP [ 1.429525] Modules linked in: [ 1.429813] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc4-dirty #343 PREEMPT [ 1.430559] Hardware name: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 (DT) [ 1.431012] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 1.431634] pc : sched_numa_find_nth_cpu+0x2a0/0x488 [ 1.432094] lr : sched_numa_find_nth_cpu+0x284/0x488 [ 1.432543] sp : ffffffc084e1b960 [ 1.432843] x29: ffffffc084e1b960 x28: ffffff80078a8800 x27: ffffffc0846eb1d0 [ 1.433495] x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 0000000000000000 [ 1.434144] x23: 0000000000000000 x22: fffffffffff7f093 x21: ffffffc081de6378 [ 1.434792] x20: 0000000000000000 x19: 0000000ffff7f093 x18: 00000000ffffffff [ 1.435441] x17: 3030303866666666 x16: 66663d736b73616d x15: ffffffc104e1b5b7 [ 1.436091] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: ffffffc084712860 x12: 0000000000000372 [ 1.436739] x11: 0000000000000126 x10: ffffffc08476a860 x9 : ffffffc084712860 [ 1.437389] x8 : 00000000ffffefff x7 : ffffffc08476a860 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.438036] x5 : 000000000000bff4 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.438683] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffffffc0846eb000 x0 : ffffff8000407b68 [ 1.439332] Call trace: [ 1.439559] sched_numa_find_nth_cpu+0x2a0/0x488 (P) [ 1.440016] smp_call_function_any+0xc8/0xd0 [ 1.440416] armv8_pmu_init+0x58/0x27c [ 1.440770] armv8_cortex_a72_pmu_init+0x20/0x2c [ 1.441199] arm_pmu_device_probe+0x1e4/0x5e8 [ 1.441603] armv8_pmu_device_probe+0x1c/0x28 [ 1.442007] platform_probe+0x5c/0xac [ 1.442347] really_probe+0xbc/0x298 [ 1.442683] __driver_probe_device+0x78/0x12c [ 1.443087] driver_probe_device+0xdc/0x160 [ 1.443475] __driver_attach+0x94/0x19c [ 1.443833] bus_for_each_dev+0x74/0xd4 [ 1.444190] driver_attach+0x24/0x30 [ 1.444525] bus_add_driver+0xe4/0x208 [ 1.444874] driver_register+0x60/0x128 [ 1.445233] __platform_driver_register+0x24/0x30 [ 1.445662] armv8_pmu_driver_init+0x28/0x4c [ 1.446059] do_one_initcall+0x44/0x25c [ 1.446416] kernel_init_freeable+0x1dc/0x3bc [ 1.446820] kernel_init+0x20/0x1d8 [ 1.447151] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 1.447493] Code: 90022e21 f000e5f5 910de2b5 2a1703e2 (f8767803) [ 1.448040] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- [ 1.448483] note: swapper/0[1] exited with preempt_count 1 [ 1.449047] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x0000000b [ 1.449741] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 1.450105] Kernel Offset: disabled [ 1.450419] CPU features: 0x000000,00080000,20002001,0400421b [
---truncated---

Published: Oct 1, 2025
Updated: Dec 15, 2025
CVE: CVE-2025-39895
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	6.3	6.6.105
linux / linux_kernel	6.7	6.12.46
linux / linux_kernel	6.13	6.16.6
linux / linux_kernel	6.17-rc1	6.17-rc1.x
linux / linux_kernel	6.17-rc2	6.17-rc2.x
linux / linux_kernel	6.17-rc3	6.17-rc3.x
linux / linux_kernel	6.17-rc4	6.17-rc4.x

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.