# CVE-2025-38267: ring-buffer: Do not trigger WARN_ON() due to a commit_overrun

> A logic error in the Linux kernel ring buffer triggers a warning during commit overruns, potentially causing system instability or denial of service.

- **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:** 10 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38267, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38267, GHSA-hjw2-6772-mrxq, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38267

## What is CVE-2025-38267?

CVE-2025-38267 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 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:

ring-buffer: Do not trigger WARN_ON() due to a commit_overrun

When reading a memory mapped buffer the reader page is just swapped out
with the last page written in the write buffer. If the reader page is the
same as the commit buffer (the buffer that is currently being written to)
it was assumed that it should never have missed events. If it does, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE().

But there just happens to be one scenario where this can legitimately
happen. That is on a commit_overrun. A commit overrun is when an interrupt
preempts an event being written to the buffer and then the interrupt adds
so many new events that it fills and wraps the buffer back to the commit.
Any new events would then be dropped and be reported as "missed_events".

In this case, the next page to read is the commit buffer and after the
swap of the reader page, the reader page will be the commit buffer, but
this time there will be missed events and this triggers the following
warning:

 ------------[ cut here ]------------
 WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 1127 at kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c:7357 ring_buffer_map_get_reader+0x49a/0x780
 Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass
 CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1127 Comm: trace-cmd Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7-test-00004-g478bc2824b45-dirty #564 PREEMPT
 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
 RIP: 0010:ring_buffer_map_get_reader+0x49a/0x780
 Code: 00 00 00 48 89 fe 48 c1 ee 03 80 3c 2e 00 0f 85 ec 01 00 00 4d 3b a6 a8 00 00 00 0f 85 8a fd ff ff 48 85 c0 0f 84 55 fe ff ff <0f> 0b e9 4e fe ff ff be 08 00 00 00 4c 89 54 24 58 48 89 54 24 50
 RSP: 0018:ffff888121787dc0 EFLAGS: 00010002
 RAX: 00000000000006a2 RBX: ffff888100062800 RCX: ffffffff8190cb49
 RDX: ffff888126934c00 RSI: 1ffff11020200a15 RDI: ffff8881010050a8
 RBP: dffffc0000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffed1024d26982
 R10: ffff888126934c17 R11: ffff8881010050a8 R12: ffff888126934c00
 R13: ffff8881010050b8 R14: ffff888101005000 R15: ffff888126930008
 FS:  00007f95c8cd7540(0000) GS:ffff8882b576e000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 00007f95c8de4dc0 CR3: 0000000128452002 CR4: 0000000000172ef0
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  ? __pfx_ring_buffer_map_get_reader+0x10/0x10
  tracing_buffers_ioctl+0x283/0x370
  __x64_sys_ioctl+0x134/0x190
  do_syscall_64+0x79/0x1c0
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
 RIP: 0033:0x7f95c8de48db
 Code: 00 48 89 44 24 18 31 c0 48 8d 44 24 60 c7 04 24 10 00 00 00 48 89 44 24 08 48 8d 44 24 20 48 89 44 24 10 b8 10 00 00 00 0f 05 <89> c2 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 1c 48 8b 44 24 18 64 48 2b 04 25 28 00 00
 RSP: 002b:00007ffe037ba110 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010
 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007ffe037bb2b0 RCX: 00007f95c8de48db
 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000005220 RDI: 0000000000000006
 RBP: 00007ffe037ba180 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
 R13: 00007ffe037bb6f8 R14: 00007f95c9065000 R15: 00005575c7492c90
  </TASK>
 irq event stamp: 5080
 hardirqs last  enabled at (5079): [<ffffffff83e0adb0>] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x50/0x70
 hardirqs last disabled at (5080): [<ffffffff83e0aa83>] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x63/0x70
 softirqs last  enabled at (4182): [<ffffffff81516122>] handle_softirqs+0x552/0x710
 softirqs last disabled at (4159): [<ffffffff815163f7>] __irq_exit_rcu+0x107/0x210
 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

The above was triggered by running on a kernel with both lockdep and KASAN
as well as kmemleak enabled and executing the following command:

 # perf record -o perf-test.dat -a -- trace-cmd record --nosplice  -e all -p function hackbench 50

With perf interjecting a lot of interrupts and trace-cmd enabling all
events as well as function tracing, with lockdep, KASAN and kmemleak
enabled, it could cause an interrupt preempting an event being written to
add enough event
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38267?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38267?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38267 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38267 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-2025-38267 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38267 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 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-2025-38267 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-2025-38267/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38267/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38267
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38267
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38267

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38267/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.