CVE-2025-38501 ksmbd: limit repeated connections from clients with the same IP

What is CVE-2025-38501?

CVE-2025-38501 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 16 Aug 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ksmbd: limit repeated connections from clients with the same IP

Repeated connections from clients with the same IP address may exhaust the max connections and prevent other normal client connections. This patch limit repeated connections from clients with the same IP.

Weakness: CWE-400

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38501?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38501?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2025-38501 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-38501 exists.

Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.

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All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-66416, BELL-CVE-2025-38501, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38501, GHSA-54w6-m43p-jffg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38501, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38501 and 3 more.