# CVE-2025-38166: bpf: fix ktls panic with sockmap

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic in the Linux kernel's BPF sockmap implementation by manipulating message sizes, causing a system crash.

- **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-64637, AZL-72760, BELL-CVE-2025-38166, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38166, GHSA-4grq-496q-c892, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38166, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38166, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38166, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38166, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38166

## What is CVE-2025-38166?

CVE-2025-38166 is a high-severity denial of service 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:

bpf: fix ktls panic with sockmap

[ 2172.936997] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[ 2172.936999] kernel BUG at lib/iov_iter.c:629!
......
[ 2172.944996] PKRU: 55555554
[ 2172.945155] Call Trace:
[ 2172.945299]  <TASK>
[ 2172.945428]  ? die+0x36/0x90
[ 2172.945601]  ? do_trap+0xdd/0x100
[ 2172.945795]  ? iov_iter_revert+0x178/0x180
[ 2172.946031]  ? iov_iter_revert+0x178/0x180
[ 2172.946267]  ? do_error_trap+0x7d/0x110
[ 2172.946499]  ? iov_iter_revert+0x178/0x180
[ 2172.946736]  ? exc_invalid_op+0x50/0x70
[ 2172.946961]  ? iov_iter_revert+0x178/0x180
[ 2172.947197]  ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20
[ 2172.947446]  ? iov_iter_revert+0x178/0x180
[ 2172.947683]  ? iov_iter_revert+0x5c/0x180
[ 2172.947913]  tls_sw_sendmsg_locked.isra.0+0x794/0x840
[ 2172.948206]  tls_sw_sendmsg+0x52/0x80
[ 2172.948420]  ? inet_sendmsg+0x1f/0x70
[ 2172.948634]  __sys_sendto+0x1cd/0x200
[ 2172.948848]  ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80
[ 2172.949072]  ? syscall_trace_enter+0x140/0x270
[ 2172.949330]  ? __lock_release.isra.0+0x5e/0x170
[ 2172.949595]  ? find_held_lock+0x2b/0x80
[ 2172.949817]  ? syscall_trace_enter+0x140/0x270
[ 2172.950211]  ? lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare+0xda/0x190
[ 2172.950632]  ? ktime_get_coarse_real_ts64+0xc2/0xd0
[ 2172.951036]  __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30
[ 2172.951382]  do_syscall_64+0x90/0x170
......

After calling bpf_exec_tx_verdict(), the size of msg_pl->sg may increase,
e.g., when the BPF program executes bpf_msg_push_data().

If the BPF program sets cork_bytes and sg.size is smaller than cork_bytes,
it will return -ENOSPC and attempt to roll back to the non-zero copy
logic. However, during rollback, msg->msg_iter is reset, but since
msg_pl->sg.size has been increased, subsequent executions will exceed the
actual size of msg_iter.
'''
iov_iter_revert(&msg->msg_iter, msg_pl->sg.size - orig_size);
'''

The changes in this commit are based on the following considerations:

1. When cork_bytes is set, rolling back to non-zero copy logic is
pointless and can directly go to zero-copy logic.

2. We can not calculate the correct number of bytes to revert msg_iter.

Assume the original data is "abcdefgh" (8 bytes), and after 3 pushes
by the BPF program, it becomes 11-byte data: "abc?de?fgh?".
Then, we set cork_bytes to 6, which means the first 6 bytes have been
processed, and the remaining 5 bytes "?fgh?" will be cached until the
length meets the cork_bytes requirement.

However, some data in "?fgh?" is not within 'sg->msg_iter'
(but in msg_pl instead), especially the data "?" we pushed.

So it doesn't seem as simple as just reverting through an offset of
msg_iter.

3. For non-TLS sockets in tcp_bpf_sendmsg, when a "cork" situation occurs,
the user-space send() doesn't return an error, and the returned length is
the same as the input length parameter, even if some data is cached.

Additionally, I saw that the current non-zero-copy logic for handling
corking is written as:
'''
line 1177
else if (ret != -EAGAIN) {
	if (ret == -ENOSPC)
		ret = 0;
	goto send_end;
'''

So it's ok to just return 'copied' without error when a "cork" situation
occurs.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38166?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38166?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38166 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38166 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-2025-38166 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38166 is a high-severity denial of service 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-2025-38166 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-2025-38166/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38166/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38166
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38166
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38166

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38166/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.