# CVE-2025-38296: ACPI: platform_profile: Avoid initializing on non-ACPI platforms

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel ACPI platform profile driver causes a warning and potential crash on non-ACPI platforms.

- **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:** 10 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38296, GHSA-fpw2-q5q5-h668, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38296

## What is CVE-2025-38296?

CVE-2025-38296 is a medium-severity 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:

ACPI: platform_profile: Avoid initializing on non-ACPI platforms

The platform profile driver is loaded even on platforms that do not have
ACPI enabled. The initialization of the sysfs entries was recently moved
from platform_profile_register() to the module init call, and those
entries need acpi_kobj to be initialized which is not the case when ACPI
is disabled.

This results in the following warning:

 WARNING: CPU: 5 PID: 1 at fs/sysfs/group.c:131 internal_create_group+0xa22/0xdd8
 Modules linked in:
 CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G        W           6.15.0-rc7-dirty #6 PREEMPT
 Tainted: [W]=WARN
 Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT)
 epc : internal_create_group+0xa22/0xdd8
  ra : internal_create_group+0xa22/0xdd8

 Call Trace:

 internal_create_group+0xa22/0xdd8
 sysfs_create_group+0x22/0x2e
 platform_profile_init+0x74/0xb2
 do_one_initcall+0x198/0xa9e
 kernel_init_freeable+0x6d8/0x780
 kernel_init+0x28/0x24c
 ret_from_fork+0xe/0x18

Fix this by checking if ACPI is enabled before trying to create sysfs
entries.

[ rjw: Subject and changelog edits ]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38296?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38296?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38296 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38296 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-2025-38296 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38296 is a medium-severity 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-2025-38296 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-2025-38296/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38296/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38296
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38296
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38296

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38296/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.