# CVE-2025-38185: atm: atmtcp: Free invalid length skb in atmtcp_c_send().

> A local attacker can trigger a memory leak and uninitialized value access in the Linux kernel ATM driver, potentially causing a denial of service or information disclosure.

- **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:** 4 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-64749, BELL-CVE-2025-38185, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38185, GHSA-wgxr-cxxg-w4cj, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38185, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38185, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38185, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38185, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38185

## What is CVE-2025-38185?

CVE-2025-38185 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 4 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:

atm: atmtcp: Free invalid length skb in atmtcp_c_send().

syzbot reported the splat below. [0]

vcc_sendmsg() copies data passed from userspace to skb and passes
it to vcc->dev->ops->send().

atmtcp_c_send() accesses skb->data as struct atmtcp_hdr after
checking if skb->len is 0, but it's not enough.

Also, when skb->len == 0, skb and sk (vcc) were leaked because
dev_kfree_skb() is not called and sk_wmem_alloc adjustment is missing
to revert atm_account_tx() in vcc_sendmsg(), which is expected
to be done in atm_pop_raw().

Let's properly free skb with an invalid length in atmtcp_c_send().

[0]:
BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in atmtcp_c_send+0x255/0xed0 drivers/atm/atmtcp.c:294
 atmtcp_c_send+0x255/0xed0 drivers/atm/atmtcp.c:294
 vcc_sendmsg+0xd7c/0xff0 net/atm/common.c:644
 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline]
 __sock_sendmsg+0x330/0x3d0 net/socket.c:727
 ____sys_sendmsg+0x7e0/0xd80 net/socket.c:2566
 ___sys_sendmsg+0x271/0x3b0 net/socket.c:2620
 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2652 [inline]
 __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2657 [inline]
 __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2655 [inline]
 __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x211/0x3e0 net/socket.c:2655
 x64_sys_call+0x32fb/0x3db0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:47
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xd9/0x210 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

Uninit was created at:
 slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4154 [inline]
 slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4197 [inline]
 kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof+0x818/0xf00 mm/slub.c:4249
 kmalloc_reserve+0x13c/0x4b0 net/core/skbuff.c:579
 __alloc_skb+0x347/0x7d0 net/core/skbuff.c:670
 alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1336 [inline]
 vcc_sendmsg+0xb40/0xff0 net/atm/common.c:628
 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline]
 __sock_sendmsg+0x330/0x3d0 net/socket.c:727
 ____sys_sendmsg+0x7e0/0xd80 net/socket.c:2566
 ___sys_sendmsg+0x271/0x3b0 net/socket.c:2620
 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2652 [inline]
 __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2657 [inline]
 __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2655 [inline]
 __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x211/0x3e0 net/socket.c:2655
 x64_sys_call+0x32fb/0x3db0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:47
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xd9/0x210 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5798 Comm: syz-executor192 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1-syzkaller-00010-g2c4a1f3fe03e #0 PREEMPT(undef)
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/07/2025

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38185?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38185?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38185 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38185 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)
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- [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-2025-38185 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38185 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 4 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-2025-38185 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-2025-38185/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38185/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38185
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38185
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38185

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38185/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
