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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2025-38387 json

RDMA/mlx5: Initialize obj_event->obj_sub_list before xa_insert

published 2025-07-25 15 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2025-22616

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 11%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

RDMA/mlx5: Initialize obj_event->obj_sub_list before xa_insert

The obj_event may be loaded immediately after inserted, then if the list_head is not initialized then we may get a poisonous pointer. This fixes the crash below:

mlx5_core 0000:03:00.0: MLX5E: StrdRq(1) RqSz(8) StrdSz(2048) RxCqeCmprss(0 enhanced) mlx5_core.sf mlx5_core.sf.4: firmware version: 32.38.3056 mlx5_core 0000:03:00.0 en3f0pf0sf2002: renamed from eth0 mlx5_core.sf mlx5_core.sf.4: Rate limit: 127 rates are supported, range: 0Mbps to 195312Mbps IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): en3f0pf0sf2002: link becomes ready Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000060 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x96000006 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000006 CM = 0, WnR = 0 user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=00000007760fb000 [0000000000000060] pgd=000000076f6d7003, p4d=000000076f6d7003, pud=0000000777841003, pmd=0000000000000000 Internal error: Oops: 96000006 [#1] SMP Modules linked in: ipmb_host(OE) act_mirred(E) cls_flower(E) sch_ingress(E) mptcp_diag(E) udp_diag(E) raw_diag(E) unix_diag(E) tcp_diag(E) inet_diag(E) binfmt_misc(E) bonding(OE) rdma_ucm(OE) rdma_cm(OE) iw_cm(OE) ib_ipoib(OE) ib_cm(OE) isofs(E) cdrom(E) mst_pciconf(OE) ib_umad(OE) mlx5_ib(OE) ipmb_dev_int(OE) mlx5_core(OE) kpatch_15237886(OEK) mlxdevm(OE) auxiliary(OE) ib_uverbs(OE) ib_core(OE) psample(E) mlxfw(OE) tls(E) sunrpc(E) vfat(E) fat(E) crct10dif_ce(E) ghash_ce(E) sha1_ce(E) sbsa_gwdt(E) virtio_console(E) ext4(E) mbcache(E) jbd2(E) xfs(E) libcrc32c(E) mmc_block(E) virtio_net(E) net_failover(E) failover(E) sha2_ce(E) sha256_arm64(E) nvme(OE) nvme_core(OE) gpio_mlxbf3(OE) mlx_compat(OE) mlxbf_pmc(OE) i2c_mlxbf(OE) sdhci_of_dwcmshc(OE) pinctrl_mlxbf3(OE) mlxbf_pka(OE) gpio_generic(E) i2c_core(E) mmc_core(E) mlxbf_gige(OE) vitesse(E) pwr_mlxbf(OE) mlxbf_tmfifo(OE) micrel(E) mlxbf_bootctl(OE) virtio_ring(E) virtio(E) ipmi_devintf(E) ipmi_msghandler(E) [last unloaded: mst_pci] CPU: 11 PID: 20913 Comm: rte-worker-11 Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE K 5.10.134-13.1.an8.aarch64 #1 Hardware name: https://www.mellanox.com BlueField-3 SmartNIC Main Card/BlueField-3 SmartNIC Main Card, BIOS 4.2.2.12968 Oct 26 2023 pstate: a0400089 (NzCv daIf +PAN -UAO -TCO BTYPE=--) pc : dispatch_event_fd+0x68/0x300 [mlx5_ib] lr : devx_event_notifier+0xcc/0x228 [mlx5_ib] sp : ffff80001005bcf0 x29: ffff80001005bcf0 x28: 0000000000000001 x27: ffff244e0740a1d8 x26: ffff244e0740a1d0 x25: ffffda56beff5ae0 x24: ffffda56bf911618 x23: ffff244e0596a480 x22: ffff244e0596a480 x21: ffff244d8312ad90 x20: ffff244e0596a480 x19: fffffffffffffff0 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffffda56be66d620 x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000040 x10: ffffda56bfcafb50 x9 : ffffda5655c25f2c x8 : 0000000000000010 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : ffff24545a2e24b8 x5 : 0000000000000003 x4 : ffff80001005bd28 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff244e0596a480 x0 : ffff244d8312ad90 Call trace: dispatch_event_fd+0x68/0x300 [mlx5_ib] devx_event_notifier+0xcc/0x228 [mlx5_ib] atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x58/0x80 mlx5_eq_async_int+0x148/0x2b0 [mlx5_core] atomic_notifier_call_chain+0x58/0x80 irq_int_handler+0x20/0x30 [mlx5_core] __handle_irq_event_percpu+0x60/0x220 handle_irq_event_percpu+0x3c/0x90 handle_irq_event+0x58/0x158 handle_fasteoi_irq+0xfc/0x188 generic_handle_irq+0x34/0x48 ...

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.4.296, 5.10.240, 5.15.187, 6.1.144, 6.6.97, 6.12.37, 6.15.6, 6.16
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.147-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.37-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38387

  • 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-2025-38387

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

  • kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.15.200.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-72403

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-2025-38387 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: RDMA/mlx5: Initialize obj_event->obj_sub_list before xa_insert

  • 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: workaround, no fix available “To mitigate this issue, prevent module mlx5_ib from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.”
  • 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
    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 SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 11% 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

Weakness
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.