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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2025-38273 json

net: tipc: fix refcount warning in tipc_aead_encrypt

published 2025-07-10 16 mo ago modified 2026-08-05 3 mo ago also EUVD-2025-20975

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 10%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net: tipc: fix refcount warning in tipc_aead_encrypt

syzbot reported a refcount warning [1] caused by calling get_net() on a network namespace that is being destroyed (refcount=0). This happens when a TIPC discovery timer fires during network namespace cleanup.

The recently added get_net() call in commit e279024617134 ("net/tipc: fix slab-use-after-free Read in tipc_aead_encrypt_done") attempts to hold a reference to the network namespace. However, if the namespace is already being destroyed, its refcount might be zero, leading to the use-after-free warning.

Replace get_net() with maybe_get_net(), which safely checks if the refcount is non-zero before incrementing it. If the namespace is being destroyed, return -ENODEV early, after releasing the bearer reference.

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/68342b55.a70a0220.253bc2.0091.GAE@google.com/T/#m12019cf9ae77e1954f666914640efa36d52704a2

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.10.239, 5.15.186, 6.1.142, 6.6.94, 6.12.34, 6.15, 6.15.3, 6.16
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.147-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.35-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38273

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-156.166
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1092.99
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1092.101
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1089.95
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1086.89
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1088.93
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1096.105
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1075.83

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38273

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

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-2025-38273 updated

kernel: net: tipc: fix refcount warning in tipc_aead_encrypt

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more 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
    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

Exploit prediction

0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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.