# CVE-2025-38407: riscv: cpu_ops_sbi: Use static array for boot_data

> A kernel bug causes a hang during secondary CPU boot on RISC-V systems with NUMA enabled, leading to denial of service.

- **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:** 25 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38407, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38407, GHSA-qq4v-pr8w-v8hg, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38407, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38407

## What is CVE-2025-38407?

CVE-2025-38407 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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:

riscv: cpu_ops_sbi: Use static array for boot_data

Since commit 6b9f29b81b15 ("riscv: Enable pcpu page first chunk
allocator"), if NUMA is enabled, the page percpu allocator may be used
on very sparse configurations, or when requested on boot with
percpu_alloc=page.

In that case, percpu data gets put in the vmalloc area. However,
sbi_hsm_hart_start() needs the physical address of a sbi_hart_boot_data,
and simply assumes that __pa() would work. This causes the just started
hart to immediately access an invalid address and hang.

Fortunately, struct sbi_hart_boot_data is not too large, so we can
simply allocate an array for boot_data statically, putting it in the
kernel image.

This fixes NUMA=y SMP boot on Sophgo SG2042.

To reproduce on QEMU: Set CONFIG_NUMA=y and CONFIG_DEBUG_VIRTUAL=y, then
run with:

  qemu-system-riscv64 -M virt -smp 2 -nographic \
    -kernel arch/riscv/boot/Image \
    -append "percpu_alloc=page"

Kernel output:

[    0.000000] Booting Linux on hartid 0
[    0.000000] Linux version 6.16.0-rc1 (dram@sakuya) (riscv64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc (GCC) 14.2.1 20250322, GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.44) #11 SMP Tue Jun 24 14:56:22 CST 2025
...
[    0.000000] percpu: 28 4K pages/cpu s85784 r8192 d20712
...
[    0.083192] smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ...
[    0.086722] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[    0.086849] virt_to_phys used for non-linear address: (____ptrval____) (0xff2000000001d080)
[    0.088001] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1 at arch/riscv/mm/physaddr.c:14 __virt_to_phys+0xae/0xe8
[    0.088376] Modules linked in:
[    0.088656] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1 #11 NONE
[    0.088833] Hardware name: riscv-virtio,qemu (DT)
[    0.088948] epc : __virt_to_phys+0xae/0xe8
[    0.089001]  ra : __virt_to_phys+0xae/0xe8
[    0.089037] epc : ffffffff80021eaa ra : ffffffff80021eaa sp : ff2000000004bbc0
[    0.089057]  gp : ffffffff817f49c0 tp : ff60000001d60000 t0 : 5f6f745f74726976
[    0.089076]  t1 : 0000000000000076 t2 : 705f6f745f747269 s0 : ff2000000004bbe0
[    0.089095]  s1 : ff2000000001d080 a0 : 0000000000000000 a1 : 0000000000000000
[    0.089113]  a2 : 0000000000000000 a3 : 0000000000000000 a4 : 0000000000000000
[    0.089131]  a5 : 0000000000000000 a6 : 0000000000000000 a7 : 0000000000000000
[    0.089155]  s2 : ffffffff8130dc00 s3 : 0000000000000001 s4 : 0000000000000001
[    0.089174]  s5 : ffffffff8185eff8 s6 : ff2000007f1eb000 s7 : ffffffff8002a2ec
[    0.089193]  s8 : 0000000000000001 s9 : 0000000000000001 s10: 0000000000000000
[    0.089211]  s11: 0000000000000000 t3 : ffffffff8180a9f7 t4 : ffffffff8180a9f7
[    0.089960]  t5 : ffffffff8180a9f8 t6 : ff2000000004b9d8
[    0.089984] status: 0000000200000120 badaddr: ffffffff80021eaa cause: 0000000000000003
[    0.090101] [<ffffffff80021eaa>] __virt_to_phys+0xae/0xe8
[    0.090228] [<ffffffff8001d796>] sbi_cpu_start+0x6e/0xe8
[    0.090247] [<ffffffff8001a5da>] __cpu_up+0x1e/0x8c
[    0.090260] [<ffffffff8002a32e>] bringup_cpu+0x42/0x258
[    0.090277] [<ffffffff8002914c>] cpuhp_invoke_callback+0xe0/0x40c
[    0.090292] [<ffffffff800294e0>] __cpuhp_invoke_callback_range+0x68/0xfc
[    0.090320] [<ffffffff8002a96a>] _cpu_up+0x11a/0x244
[    0.090334] [<ffffffff8002aae6>] cpu_up+0x52/0x90
[    0.090384] [<ffffffff80c09350>] bringup_nonboot_cpus+0x78/0x118
[    0.090411] [<ffffffff80c11060>] smp_init+0x34/0xb8
[    0.090425] [<ffffffff80c01220>] kernel_init_freeable+0x148/0x2e4
[    0.090442] [<ffffffff80b83802>] kernel_init+0x1e/0x14c
[    0.090455] [<ffffffff800124ca>] ret_from_fork_kernel+0xe/0xf0
[    0.090471] [<ffffffff80b8d9c2>] ret_from_fork_kernel_asm+0x16/0x18
[    0.090560] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
[    1.179875] CPU1: failed to come online
[    1.190324] smp: Brought up 1 node, 1 CPU

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38407?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38407?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38407 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38407 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-2025-38407 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38407 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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-2025-38407 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-2025-38407/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38407/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38407
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38407
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38407

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38407/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
