# CVE-2025-38517: lib/alloc_tag: do not acquire non-existent lock in alloc_tag_top_users()

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's alloc_tag module causes a system crash when memory profiling is disabled or uninitialized.

- **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-2025-38517, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38517, GHSA-864c-jv4g-gp7q, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38517, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38517

## What is CVE-2025-38517?

CVE-2025-38517 is a medium-severity 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:

lib/alloc_tag: do not acquire non-existent lock in alloc_tag_top_users()

alloc_tag_top_users() attempts to lock alloc_tag_cttype->mod_lock even
when the alloc_tag_cttype is not allocated because:

  1) alloc tagging is disabled because mem profiling is disabled
     (!alloc_tag_cttype)
  2) alloc tagging is enabled, but not yet initialized (!alloc_tag_cttype)
  3) alloc tagging is enabled, but failed initialization
     (!alloc_tag_cttype or IS_ERR(alloc_tag_cttype))

In all cases, alloc_tag_cttype is not allocated, and therefore
alloc_tag_top_users() should not attempt to acquire the semaphore.

This leads to a crash on memory allocation failure by attempting to
acquire a non-existent semaphore:

  Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc000000001b: 0000 [#3] SMP KASAN NOPTI
  KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000000d8-0x00000000000000df]
  CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Tainted: G      D             6.16.0-rc2 #1 VOLUNTARY
  Tainted: [D]=DIE
  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014
  RIP: 0010:down_read_trylock+0xaa/0x3b0
  Code: d0 7c 08 84 d2 0f 85 a0 02 00 00 8b 0d df 31 dd 04 85 c9 75 29 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 48 8d 6b 68 48 89 ea 48 c1 ea 03 <80> 3c 02 00 0f 85 88 02 00 00 48 3b 5b 68 0f 85 53 01 00 00 65 ff
  RSP: 0000:ffff8881002ce9b8 EFLAGS: 00010016
  RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000000070 RCX: 0000000000000000
  RDX: 000000000000001b RSI: 000000000000000a RDI: 0000000000000070
  RBP: 00000000000000d8 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: ffffed107dde49d1
  R10: ffff8883eef24e8b R11: ffff8881002cec20 R12: 1ffff11020059d37
  R13: 00000000003fff7b R14: ffff8881002cec20 R15: dffffc0000000000
  FS:  00007f963f21d940(0000) GS:ffff888458ca6000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007f963f5edf71 CR3: 000000010672c000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   codetag_trylock_module_list+0xd/0x20
   alloc_tag_top_users+0x369/0x4b0
   __show_mem+0x1cd/0x6e0
   warn_alloc+0x2b1/0x390
   __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x12b9/0x21a0
   alloc_pages_mpol+0x135/0x3e0
   alloc_slab_page+0x82/0xe0
   new_slab+0x212/0x240
   ___slab_alloc+0x82a/0xe00
   </TASK>

As David Wang points out, this issue became easier to trigger after commit
780138b12381 ("alloc_tag: check mem_profiling_support in alloc_tag_init").

Before the commit, the issue occurred only when it failed to allocate and
initialize alloc_tag_cttype or if a memory allocation fails before
alloc_tag_init() is called.  After the commit, it can be easily triggered
when memory profiling is compiled but disabled at boot.

To properly determine whether alloc_tag_init() has been called and its
data structures initialized, verify that alloc_tag_cttype is a valid
pointer before acquiring the semaphore.  If the variable is NULL or an
error value, it has not been properly initialized.  In such a case, just
skip and do not attempt to acquire the semaphore.

[harry.yoo@oracle.com: v3]

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38517?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38517?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38517 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38517 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-2025-38517 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38517 is a medium-severity 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-2025-38517 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-2025-38517/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38517/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38517
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38517
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38517

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38517/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.