# CVE-2025-38034: btrfs: correct the order of prelim_ref arguments in btrfs__prelim_ref

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by enabling specific tracing events and performing write operations due to incorrect argument ordering.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Jun 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-63956, BELL-CVE-2025-38034, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38034, GHSA-q9x5-5x5x-rgj4, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38034, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38034, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38034, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38034, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38034

## What is CVE-2025-38034?

CVE-2025-38034 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

btrfs: correct the order of prelim_ref arguments in btrfs__prelim_ref

btrfs_prelim_ref() calls the old and new reference variables in the
incorrect order. This causes a NULL pointer dereference because oldref
is passed as NULL to trace_btrfs_prelim_ref_insert().

Note, trace_btrfs_prelim_ref_insert() is being called with newref as
oldref (and oldref as NULL) on purpose in order to print out
the values of newref.

To reproduce:
echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/btrfs/btrfs_prelim_ref_insert/enable

Perform some writeback operations.

Backtrace:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000018
 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
 #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
 PGD 115949067 P4D 115949067 PUD 11594a067 PMD 0
 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1188 Comm: fsstress Not tainted 6.15.0-rc2-tester+ #47 PREEMPT(voluntary)  7ca2cef72d5e9c600f0c7718adb6462de8149622
 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.3-2-gc13ff2cd-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
 RIP: 0010:trace_event_raw_event_btrfs__prelim_ref+0x72/0x130
 Code: e8 43 81 9f ff 48 85 c0 74 78 4d 85 e4 0f 84 8f 00 00 00 49 8b 94 24 c0 06 00 00 48 8b 0a 48 89 48 08 48 8b 52 08 48 89 50 10 <49> 8b 55 18 48 89 50 18 49 8b 55 20 48 89 50 20 41 0f b6 55 28 88
 RSP: 0018:ffffce44820077a0 EFLAGS: 00010286
 RAX: ffff8c6b403f9014 RBX: ffff8c6b55825730 RCX: 304994edf9cf506b
 RDX: d8b11eb7f0fdb699 RSI: ffff8c6b403f9010 RDI: ffff8c6b403f9010
 RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000010
 R10: 00000000ffffffff R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff8c6b4e8fb000
 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffffce44820077a8 R15: ffff8c6b4abd1540
 FS:  00007f4dc6813740(0000) GS:ffff8c6c1d378000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 0000000000000018 CR3: 000000010eb42000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0
 PKRU: 55555554
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  prelim_ref_insert+0x1c1/0x270
  find_parent_nodes+0x12a6/0x1ee0
  ? __entry_text_end+0x101f06/0x101f09
  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
  ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
  btrfs_is_data_extent_shared+0x167/0x640
  ? fiemap_process_hole+0xd0/0x2c0
  extent_fiemap+0xa5c/0xbc0
  ? __entry_text_end+0x101f05/0x101f09
  btrfs_fiemap+0x7e/0xd0
  do_vfs_ioctl+0x425/0x9d0
  __x64_sys_ioctl+0x75/0xc0

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38034?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38034?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38034 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38034 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38034 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38034 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38034 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38034/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38034/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38034
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38034
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38034

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38034/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.