# CVE-2025-38036: drm/xe/vf: Perform early GT MMIO initialization to read GMDID

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's Xe GPU driver causes a crash when Virtual Functions attempt to read GMDID values.

- **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:** BELL-CVE-2025-38036, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38036, ECHO-8fd6-6a7b-45a8, GHSA-gvpw-xr49-hcwq, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38036, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38036, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38036, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38036

## What is CVE-2025-38036?

CVE-2025-38036 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, 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:

drm/xe/vf: Perform early GT MMIO initialization to read GMDID

VFs need to communicate with the GuC to obtain the GMDID value
and existing GuC functions used for that assume that the GT has
it's MMIO members already setup. However, due to recent refactoring
the gt->mmio is initialized later, and any attempt by the VF to use
xe_mmio_read|write() from GuC functions will lead to NPD crash due
to unset MMIO register address:

[] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm] Running in SR-IOV VF mode
[] xe 0000:00:02.1: [drm] GT0: sending H2G MMIO 0x5507
[] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000000190240

Since we are already tweaking the id and type of the primary GT to
mimic it's a Media GT before initializing the GuC communication,
we can also call xe_gt_mmio_init() to perform early setup of the
gt->mmio which will make those GuC functions work again.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38036?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38036?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38036 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38036 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38036 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38036 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, 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-2025-38036 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2025-38036/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38036/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38036
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38036
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38036

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38036/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.