CVE-2025-38542 net: appletalk: Fix device refcount leak in atrtr_create()

What is CVE-2025-38542?

CVE-2025-38542 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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:

net: appletalk: Fix device refcount leak in atrtr_create()

When updating an existing route entry in atrtr_create(), the old device reference was not being released before assigning the new device, leading to a device refcount leak. Fix this by calling dev_put() to release the old device reference before holding the new one.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38542?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38542?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-38542 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38542 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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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-66356, AZL-73575, BELL-CVE-2025-38542, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38542, GHSA-m82r-6669-cm5x, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38542 and 2 more.