medium 5.5

CVE-2025-38691 json

pNFS: Fix uninited ptr deref in block/scsi layout

published 2025-09-04 14 mo ago modified 2026-11-05 3 d ago also EUVD-2025-26778

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:

The error occurs on the third attempt to encode extents. When function ext_tree_prepare_commit() reallocates a larger buffer to retry encoding extents, the "layoutupdate_pages" page array is initialized only after the retry loop. But ext_tree_free_commitdata() is called on every iteration and tries to put pages in the array, thus dereferencing uninitialized pointers.

An additional problem is that there is no limit on the maximum possible buffer_size. When there are too many extents, the client may create a layoutcommit that is larger than the maximum possible RPC size accepted by the server.

During testing, we observed two typical scenarios. First, one memory page for extents is enough when we work with small files, append data to the end of the file, or preallocate extents before writing. But when we fill a new large file without preallocating, the number of extents can be huge, and counting the number of written extents in ext_tree_encode_commit() does not help much. Since this number increases even more between unlocking and locking of ext_tree, the reallocated buffer may not be large enough again and again.

Patch / fix

fixed in 2 distros 5 links 9

Linux Linux 5.4.297, 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2, 6.17
Siemens SIMATIC CN 4100 V5.0

debian ubuntu suse opensuse azure linux

linux Debian 12 6.1.153-1
linux Debian 13 6.12.43-1
linux Debian 14 6.16.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38691

linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-163.173
linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-100.100
linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1097.104
linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1046.49
linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1097.106
linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1047.50
linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1093.99
linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1043.48

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38691

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-2025:4189-1 SUSE-SU-2025:4141-1

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 6.6.104.2-1
kernel CBL-Mariner 2.0 5.15.200.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-66800 AZL-73920

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-2025-38691 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 6.2

kernel: pNFS: Fix uninited ptr deref in block/scsi layout

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: workaround, 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 ICSA-26-134-10 updated 2026-05-14 cvss 5.5

Siemens SIMATIC

Siemens SIMATIC CN 4100 < 5.0
affected: fixed in V5.0 support.industry.siemens.com

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 CN 4100
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-908 Use of Uninitialized Resource

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2025-38691
NVD CVE-2025-38691

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