CVE-2025-38461 vsock: Fix transport_* TOCTOU
High 7.0
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38461 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2025-38461 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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-2025-38461 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-2025-38461/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38461/index.md)
A race condition in the Linux kernel vsock transport assignment can cause a stale pointer dereference, leading to a system crash.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-38461?
CVE-2025-38461 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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:
vsock: Fix transport_* TOCTOU
Transport assignment may race with module unload. Protect new_transport from becoming a stale pointer.
This also takes care of an insecure call in vsock_use_local_transport(); add a lockdep assert.
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: fffffbfff8056000 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN RIP: 0010:vsock_assign_transport+0x366/0x600 Call Trace: vsock_connect+0x59c/0xc40 __sys_connect+0xe8/0x100 __x64_sys_connect+0x6e/0xc0 do_syscall_64+0x92/0x1c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
Weakness: CWE-367
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38461?
It affects 2 products.
Linux distribution packages (39)
kernel-rt AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-core AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-core AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-modules AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-devel AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-modules AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-core Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-core Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-kvm Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-kvm Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-modules-extra Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::nfv | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-core Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-core Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-devel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-modules Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt-modules-extra Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::realtime | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
kernel-rt Rocky Linux:8 | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.76.1.rt7.417.el8_10 |
Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38461?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38461 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38461 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as ALSA-2025:16373, AZL-65783, AZL-72947, BELL-CVE-2025-38461, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38461, GHSA-482q-8xhf-gxrw and 7 more.