🛡️ CVE-2025-38685 — debian-linux

🟠 CVSS 7.8 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-787 NVD
7.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

fbdev: Fix vmalloc out-of-bounds write in fast_imageblit

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

fbdev: Fix vmalloc out-of-bounds write in fast_imageblit

This issue triggers when a userspace program does an ioctl

FBIOPUT_CON2FBMAP by passing console number and frame buffer number.

Ideally this maps console to frame buffer and updates the screen if

console is visible.

As part of mapping it has to do resize of console according to frame

buffer info. if this resize fails and returns from vc_do_resize() and

continues further. At this point console and new frame buffer are mapped

and sets display vars. Despite failure still it continue to proceed

updating the screen at later stages where vc_data is related to previous

frame buffer and frame buffer info and display vars are mapped to new

frame buffer and eventully leading to out-of-bounds write in

fast_imageblit(). This bheviour is excepted only when fg_console is

equal to requested console which is a visible console and updates screen

with invalid struct references in fbcon_putcs().

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2025-38685 is classified as CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write. Data is written past the end or before the start of a buffer, corrupting whatever is stored there.

Affected software

CVE-2025-38685 is recorded against 3 packages.

  • debian-linux
  • kernel (from 6.16.0 up to 6.16.2)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 4 September 2025 and last revised on 30 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
lists.debian.org
cert-portal.siemens.com
cert-portal.siemens.com

CVE-2025-38685 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 7.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE CWE-787
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-09-04
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-07-30

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
debian-linux
kernel 6.16.0 6.16.2
linux-kernel

Similar Threats

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