# CVE-2025-38161: RDMA/mlx5: Fix error flow upon firmware failure for RQ destruction

> A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel RDMA mlx5 driver allows attackers to cause a denial of service or potentially execute code via improper error handling during RQ destruction.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 3 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-64490, BELL-CVE-2025-38161, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38161, GHSA-hc4c-5v7j-vr7h, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38161, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38161, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38161, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38161, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38161

## What is CVE-2025-38161?

CVE-2025-38161 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 3 Jul 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:

RDMA/mlx5: Fix error flow upon firmware failure for RQ destruction

Upon RQ destruction if the firmware command fails which is the
last resource to be destroyed some SW resources were already cleaned
regardless of the failure.

Now properly rollback the object to its original state upon such failure.

In order to avoid a use-after free in case someone tries to destroy the
object again, which results in the following kernel trace:
refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 37589 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0xf4/0x148
Modules linked in: rdma_ucm(OE) rdma_cm(OE) iw_cm(OE) ib_ipoib(OE) ib_cm(OE) ib_umad(OE) mlx5_ib(OE) rfkill mlx5_core(OE) mlxdevm(OE) ib_uverbs(OE) ib_core(OE) psample mlxfw(OE) mlx_compat(OE) macsec tls pci_hyperv_intf sunrpc vfat fat virtio_net net_failover failover fuse loop nfnetlink vsock_loopback vmw_vsock_virtio_transport_common vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vmw_vmci vsock xfs crct10dif_ce ghash_ce sha2_ce sha256_arm64 sha1_ce virtio_console virtio_gpu virtio_blk virtio_dma_buf virtio_mmio dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_mod xpmem(OE)
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 37589 Comm: python3 Kdump: loaded Tainted: G           OE     -------  ---  6.12.0-54.el10.aarch64 #1
Tainted: [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE
Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015
pstate: 60400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
pc : refcount_warn_saturate+0xf4/0x148
lr : refcount_warn_saturate+0xf4/0x148
sp : ffff80008b81b7e0
x29: ffff80008b81b7e0 x28: ffff000133d51600 x27: 0000000000000001
x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 00000000ffffffea x24: ffff00010ae80f00
x23: ffff00010ae80f80 x22: ffff0000c66e5d08 x21: 0000000000000000
x20: ffff0000c66e0000 x19: ffff00010ae80340 x18: 0000000000000006
x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000020 x15: ffff80008b81b37f
x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 2e656572662d7265 x12: ffff80008283ef78
x11: ffff80008257efd0 x10: ffff80008283efd0 x9 : ffff80008021ed90
x8 : 0000000000000001 x7 : 00000000000bffe8 x6 : c0000000ffff7fff
x5 : ffff0001fb8e3408 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : ffff800179993000
x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff000133d51600
Call trace:
 refcount_warn_saturate+0xf4/0x148
 mlx5_core_put_rsc+0x88/0xa0 [mlx5_ib]
 mlx5_core_destroy_rq_tracked+0x64/0x98 [mlx5_ib]
 mlx5_ib_destroy_wq+0x34/0x80 [mlx5_ib]
 ib_destroy_wq_user+0x30/0xc0 [ib_core]
 uverbs_free_wq+0x28/0x58 [ib_uverbs]
 destroy_hw_idr_uobject+0x34/0x78 [ib_uverbs]
 uverbs_destroy_uobject+0x48/0x240 [ib_uverbs]
 __uverbs_cleanup_ufile+0xd4/0x1a8 [ib_uverbs]
 uverbs_destroy_ufile_hw+0x48/0x120 [ib_uverbs]
 ib_uverbs_close+0x2c/0x100 [ib_uverbs]
 __fput+0xd8/0x2f0
 __fput_sync+0x50/0x70
 __arm64_sys_close+0x40/0x90
 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0x74/0xd0
 do_el0_svc+0x48/0xe8
 el0_svc+0x44/0x1d0
 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x120/0x130
 el0t_64_sync+0x1a4/0x1a8

Weakness: CWE-191 (Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound))

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38161?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38161?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38161 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38161 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-2025-38161 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38161 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 3 Jul 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-2025-38161 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-2025-38161/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38161/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38161
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38161
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38161

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38161/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.