# CVE-2025-38506: KVM: Allow CPU to reschedule while setting per-page memory attributes

> A local attacker can cause a CPU soft lockup and denial of service on the host by triggering memory attribute updates for large SEV-SNP guests.

- **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:** 16 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38506, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38506, GHSA-8mcg-xrhw-92v3, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38506, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38506, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38506

## What is CVE-2025-38506?

CVE-2025-38506 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Aug 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:

KVM: Allow CPU to reschedule while setting per-page memory attributes

When running an SEV-SNP guest with a sufficiently large amount of memory (1TB+),
the host can experience CPU soft lockups when running an operation in
kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes() to set memory attributes on the whole
range of guest memory.

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 26s! [qemu-kvm:6372]
CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 6372 Comm: qemu-kvm Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7.20250520.el9uek.rc1.x86_64 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary)
Hardware name: Oracle Corporation ORACLE SERVER E4-2c/Asm,MB Tray,2U,E4-2c, BIOS 78016600 11/13/2024
RIP: 0010:xas_create+0x78/0x1f0
Code: 00 00 00 41 80 fc 01 0f 84 82 00 00 00 ba 06 00 00 00 bd 06 00 00 00 49 8b 45 08 4d 8d 65 08 41 39 d6 73 20 83 ed 06 48 85 c0 <74> 67 48 89 c2 83 e2 03 48 83 fa 02 75 0c 48 3d 00 10 00 00 0f 87
RSP: 0018:ffffad890a34b940 EFLAGS: 00000286
RAX: ffff96f30b261daa RBX: ffffad890a34b9c8 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 000000000000001e RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: 0000000000000018 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffad890a356868
R13: ffffad890a356860 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffad890a356868
FS:  00007f5578a2a400(0000) GS:ffff97ed317e1000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f015c70fb18 CR3: 00000001109fd006 CR4: 0000000000f70ef0
PKRU: 55555554
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 xas_store+0x58/0x630
 __xa_store+0xa5/0x130
 xa_store+0x2c/0x50
 kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes+0x343/0x710 [kvm]
 kvm_vm_ioctl+0x796/0xab0 [kvm]
 __x64_sys_ioctl+0xa3/0xd0
 do_syscall_64+0x8c/0x7a0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
RIP: 0033:0x7f5578d031bb
Code: ff ff ff 85 c0 79 9b 49 c7 c4 ff ff ff ff 5b 5d 4c 89 e0 41 5c c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa b8 10 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 2d 4c 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007ffe0a742b88 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000000004020aed2 RCX: 00007f5578d031bb
RDX: 00007ffe0a742c80 RSI: 000000004020aed2 RDI: 000000000000000b
RBP: 0000010000000000 R08: 0000010000000000 R09: 0000017680000000
R10: 0000000000000080 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575e5f95120
R13: 00007ffe0a742c80 R14: 0000000000000008 R15: 00005575e5f961e0

While looping through the range of memory setting the attributes,
call cond_resched() to give the scheduler a chance to run a higher
priority task on the runqueue if necessary and avoid staying in
kernel mode long enough to trigger the lockup.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38506?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38506?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38506 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38506 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-2025-38506 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38506 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Aug 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-2025-38506 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-2025-38506/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38506/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38506
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38506
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38506

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38506/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.