🛡️ CVE-2025-38140 on Debian — linux

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm: limit swapping tables for devices with zone write plugs dm_revalidate_zones() only allowed new or previously unzoned devices to call blk_revalidate_disk_zones(). If the device was already zoned, disk->nr_zones would always equal md->nr_zones, so dm_revalidate_zones() returned without doing any work. This would make the zoned settings for the device not match the new table. If the device had zone write plug resources, it could run into errors like bdev_zone_is_seq() reading invalid memory because disk->conv_zones_bitmap was the wrong size. If the device doesn't have any zone write plug resources, calling blk_revalidate_disk_zones() will always correctly update device. If blk_revalidate_disk_zones() fails, it can still overwrite or clear the current disk->nr_zones value. In this case, DM must restore the previous value of disk->nr_zones, so that the zoned settings will continue to match the previous value that it fell back to. If the device already has zone write plug resources, blk_revalidate_disk_zones() will not correctly update them, if it is called for arbitrary zoned device changes. Since there is not much need for this ability, the easiest solution is to disallow any table reloads that change the zoned settings, for devices that already have zone plug resources. Specifically, if a device already has zone plug resources allocated, it can only switch to another zoned table that also emulates zone append. Also, it cannot change the device size or the zone size. A device can switch to an error target.

Distribution advisory

This page covers CVE-2025-38140 as tracked by Debian, for the package linux. The fix is available in version 6.16.3-1; earlier versions remain affected.

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 none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38140 is recorded against 1 package.

  • linux (fixed in 6.16.3-1)

Timeline and source

Published on 3 July 2025 and last revised on 4 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

security-tracker.debian.org (Advisory)

CVE-2025-38140 on other distributions

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

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2025-07-03
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-08-04
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
linux 6.16.3-1

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