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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2025-38327 json

fgraph: Do not enable function_graph tracer when setting funcgraph-args

published 2025-07-10 16 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2025-20919

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 7%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

fgraph: Do not enable function_graph tracer when setting funcgraph-args

When setting the funcgraph-args option when function graph tracer is net enabled, it incorrectly enables it. Worse, it unregisters itself when it was never registered. Then when it gets enabled again, it will register itself a second time causing a WARNing.

~# echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/options/funcgraph-args ~# head -20 /sys/kernel/tracing/trace # tracer: nop # # entries-in-buffer/entries-written: 813/26317372 #P:8 # # _-----=> irqs-off/BH-disabled # / _----=> need-resched # | / _---=> hardirq/softirq # || / _--=> preempt-depth # ||| / _-=> migrate-disable # |||| / delay # TASK-PID CPU# ||||| TIMESTAMP FUNCTION # | | | ||||| | | <idle>-0 [007] d..4. 358.966010: 7) 1.692 us | fetch_next_timer_interrupt(basej=4294981640, basem=357956000000, base_local=0xffff88823c3ae040, base_global=0xffff88823c3af300, tevt=0xffff888100e47cb8); <idle>-0 [007] d..4. 358.966012: 7) | tmigr_cpu_deactivate(nextexp=357988000000) { <idle>-0 [007] d..4. 358.966013: 7) | _raw_spin_lock(lock=0xffff88823c3b2320) { <idle>-0 [007] d..4. 358.966014: 7) 0.981 us | preempt_count_add(val=1); <idle>-0 [007] d..5. 358.966017: 7) 1.058 us | do_raw_spin_lock(lock=0xffff88823c3b2320); <idle>-0 [007] d..4. 358.966019: 7) 5.824 us | } <idle>-0 [007] d..5. 358.966021: 7) | tmigr_inactive_up(group=0xffff888100cb9000, child=0x0, data=0xffff888100e47bc0) { <idle>-0 [007] d..5. 358.966022: 7) | tmigr_update_events(group=0xffff888100cb9000, child=0x0, data=0xffff888100e47bc0) {

Notice the "tracer: nop" at the top there. The current tracer is the "nop" tracer, but the content is obviously the function graph tracer.

Enabling function graph tracing will cause it to register again and trigger a warning in the accounting:

~# echo function_graph > /sys/kernel/tracing/current_tracer -bash: echo: write error: Device or resource busy

With the dmesg of:

------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 1095 at kernel/trace/ftrace.c:3509 ftrace_startup_subops+0xc1e/0x1000 Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 1095 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.16.0-rc2-test-00006-gea03de4105d3 #24 PREEMPT Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:ftrace_startup_subops+0xc1e/0x1000 Code: 48 b8 22 01 00 00 00 00 ad de 49 89 84 24 88 01 00 00 8b 44 24 08 89 04 24 e9 c3 f7 ff ff c7 04 24 ed ff ff ff e9 b7 f7 ff ff <0f> 0b c7 04 24 f0 ff ff ff e9 a9 f7 ff ff c7 04 24 f4 ff ff ff e9 RSP: 0018:ffff888133cff948 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: 1ffff1102679ff31 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 1ffffffff0b27a60 RSI: ffffffff8593d2f0 RDI: ffffffff85941140 RBP: 00000000000c2041 R08: ffffffffffffffff R09: ffffed1020240221 R10: ffff88810120110f R11: ffffed1020240214 R12: ffffffff8593d2f0 R13: ffffffff8593d300 R14: ffffffff85941140 R15: ffffffff85631100 FS: 00007f7ec6f28740(0000) GS:ffff8882b5251000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f7ec6f181c0 CR3: 000000012f1d0005 CR4: 0000000000172ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __pfx_ftrace_startup_subops+0x10/0x10 ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80 ? ftrace_stub_direct_tramp+0x10/0x10 ? ftrace_stub_direct_tramp+0x10/0x10 ? trace_preempt_on+0xd0/0x110 ? __pfx_trace_graph_entry_args+0x10/ ---truncated---

Patch / fix

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-2025-38327 updated

kernel: fgraph: Do not enable function_graph tracer when setting funcgraph-args

  • 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

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% 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

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.