medium 5.5

CVE-2025-38222 json

ext4: inline: fix len overflow in ext4_prepare_inline_data

published 2025-07-04 16 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2025-20034

cvss: 5.5; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 8%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

When running the following code on an ext4 filesystem with inline_data feature enabled, it will lead to the bug below.

fd = open("file1", O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC, 0666); ftruncate(fd, 30); pwrite(fd, "a", 1, (1UL << 40) + 5UL);

That happens because write_begin will succeed as when ext4_generic_write_inline_data calls ext4_prepare_inline_data, pos + len will be truncated, leading to ext4_prepare_inline_data parameter to be 6 instead of 0x10000000006.

Then, later when write_end is called, we hit:

BUG_ON(pos + len > EXT4_I(inode)->i_inline_size);

at ext4_write_inline_data.

Fix it by using a loff_t type for the len parameter in ext4_prepare_inline_data instead of an unsigned int.

[ 44.545164] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 44.545530] kernel BUG at fs/ext4/inline.c:240! [ 44.545834] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 44.546172] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 343 Comm: test Not tainted 6.15.0-rc2-00003-g9080916f4863 #45 PREEMPT(full) 112853fcebfdb93254270a7959841d2c6aa2c8bb [ 44.546523] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 44.546523] RIP: 0010:ext4_write_inline_data+0xfe/0x100 [ 44.546523] Code: 3c 0e 48 83 c7 48 48 89 de 5b 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f 5d e9 e4 fa 43 01 5b 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f 5d c3 cc cc cc cc cc 0f 0b <0f> 0b 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 41 57 41 56 41 55 41 54 53 48 83 ec 20 49 [ 44.546523] RSP: 0018:ffffb342008b79a8 EFLAGS: 00010216 [ 44.546523] RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: ffff9329c579c000 RCX: 0000010000000006 [ 44.546523] RDX: 000000000000003c RSI: ffffb342008b79f0 RDI: ffff9329c158e738 [ 44.546523] RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 44.546523] R10: 00007ffffffff000 R11: ffffffff9bd0d910 R12: 0000006210000000 [ 44.546523] R13: fffffc7e4015e700 R14: 0000010000000005 R15: ffff9329c158e738 [ 44.546523] FS: 00007f4299934740(0000) GS:ffff932a60179000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 44.546523] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 44.546523] CR2: 00007f4299a1ec90 CR3: 0000000002886002 CR4: 0000000000770eb0 [ 44.546523] PKRU: 55555554 [ 44.546523] Call Trace: [ 44.546523] <TASK> [ 44.546523] ext4_write_inline_data_end+0x126/0x2d0 [ 44.546523] generic_perform_write+0x17e/0x270 [ 44.546523] ext4_buffered_write_iter+0xc8/0x170 [ 44.546523] vfs_write+0x2be/0x3e0 [ 44.546523] __x64_sys_pwrite64+0x6d/0xc0 [ 44.546523] do_syscall_64+0x6a/0xf0 [ 44.546523] ? __wake_up+0x89/0xb0 [ 44.546523] ? xas_find+0x72/0x1c0 [ 44.546523] ? next_uptodate_folio+0x317/0x330 [ 44.546523] ? set_pte_range+0x1a6/0x270 [ 44.546523] ? filemap_map_pages+0x6ee/0x840 [ 44.546523] ? ext4_setattr+0x2fa/0x750 [ 44.546523] ? do_pte_missing+0x128/0xf70 [ 44.546523] ? security_inode_post_setattr+0x3e/0xd0 [ 44.546523] ? ___pte_offset_map+0x19/0x100 [ 44.546523] ? handle_mm_fault+0x721/0xa10 [ 44.546523] ? do_user_addr_fault+0x197/0x730 [ 44.546523] ? do_syscall_64+0x76/0xf0 [ 44.546523] ? arch_exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x1e/0x60 [ 44.546523] ? irqentry_exit_to_user_mode+0x79/0x90 [ 44.546523] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x55/0x5d [ 44.546523] RIP: 0033:0x7f42999c6687 [ 44.546523] Code: 48 89 fa 4c 89 df e8 58 b3 00 00 8b 93 08 03 00 00 59 5e 48 83 f8 fc 74 1a 5b c3 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 44 24 10 0f 05 <5b> c3 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 83 e2 39 83 fa 08 75 de e8 23 ff ff ff [ 44.546523] RSP: 002b:00007ffeae4a7930 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000012 [ 44.546523] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f4299934740 RCX: 00007f42999c6687 [ 44.546523] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 000055ea6149200f RDI: 0000000000000003 [ 44.546523] RBP: 00007ffeae4a79a0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 44.546523] R10: 0000010000000005 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000 ---truncated---

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 5 links 8

Linux Linux 5.4.295, 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 6.1.142, 6.6.95, 6.12.35, 6.15.4, 6.16

debian ubuntu suse opensuse azure linux

linux Debian 12 6.1.147-1
linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.35-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38222

linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-156.166
linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-100.100
linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1092.99
linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1046.49
linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1092.101
linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1047.50
linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1089.95
linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1043.48

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38222

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4
kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-obs-qa SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-kvmsmall SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1 SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1 SUSE-SU-2026:20560-1 SUSE-SU-2025:21179-1 SUSE-SU-2025:03023-1 SUSE-SU-2025:03011-1

kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1
kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1

kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.96.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-64746

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-38222 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.5

kernel: ext4: inline: fix len overflow in ext4_prepare_inline_data

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

cisa ICSA-25-162-05 updated 2026-05-14 cvss 5.5

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU family

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.5 Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6AG1518-4AX00-4AC0) >= 3.1.5
affected: mitigation, no fix available

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 3 d ago (2026-11-05)

Exploit prediction

0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

Linux Linux
Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP
Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP
Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP

Classification

Weakness

CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

git.kernel.org /stable/c/d3dfc60efd145df5324b99a244b0b05505cde29b
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/717414a8c083c376d4a8940a1230fe0c6ed4ee00
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/9d1d1c5bf4fc1af76be154d3afb2acdbd89ec7d8
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/cf5f319a2d8ab8238f8cf3a19463b9bff6420934
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/26e09d18599da0adc543eabd300080daaeda6869
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/5766da2237e539f259aa0e5f3639ae37b44ca458
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/e80ee0263d88d77f2fd1927f915003a7066cbb50
patch
git.kernel.org /stable/c/227cb4ca5a6502164f850d22aec3104d7888b270
patch
lists.debian.org /debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html
mailing-list, third-party-advisory
lists.debian.org /debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html
mailing-list, third-party-advisory
cert-portal.siemens.com /productcert/html/ssa-082556.html

Sources

CVE List CVE-2025-38222
NVD CVE-2025-38222

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary