# CVE-2025-38589: neighbour: Fix null-ptr-deref in neigh_flush_dev().

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's neighbour subsystem can cause a system crash during IPv6 initialization failure.

- **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:** 19 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38589, GHSA-9844-9wvv-r2x3, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38589

## What is CVE-2025-38589?

CVE-2025-38589 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 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:

neighbour: Fix null-ptr-deref in neigh_flush_dev().

kernel test robot reported null-ptr-deref in neigh_flush_dev(). [0]

The cited commit introduced per-netdev neighbour list and converted
neigh_flush_dev() to use it instead of the global hash table.

One thing we missed is that neigh_table_clear() calls neigh_ifdown()
with NULL dev.

Let's restore the hash table iteration.

Note that IPv6 module is no longer unloadable, so neigh_table_clear()
is called only when IPv6 fails to initialise, which is unlikely to
happen.

[0]:
IPv6: Attempt to unregister permanent protocol 136
IPv6: Attempt to unregister permanent protocol 17
Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc00000001a0: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000d00-0x0000000000000d07]
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Tainted: G                T  6.12.0-rc6-01246-gf7f52738637f #1
Tainted: [T]=RANDSTRUCT
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:neigh_flush_dev.llvm.6395807810224103582+0x52/0x570
Code: c1 e8 03 42 8a 04 38 84 c0 0f 85 15 05 00 00 31 c0 41 83 3e 0a 0f 94 c0 48 8d 1c c3 48 81 c3 f8 0c 00 00 48 89 d8 48 c1 e8 03 <42> 80 3c 38 00 74 08 48 89 df e8 f7 49 93 fe 4c 8b 3b 4d 85 ff 0f
RSP: 0000:ffff88810026f408 EFLAGS: 00010206
RAX: 00000000000001a0 RBX: 0000000000000d00 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffffffc0631640
RBP: ffff88810026f470 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: ffffffffc0625250 R14: ffffffffc0631640 R15: dffffc0000000000
FS:  00007f575cb83940(0000) GS:ffff8883aee00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f575db40008 CR3: 00000002bf936000 CR4: 00000000000406f0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __neigh_ifdown.llvm.6395807810224103582+0x44/0x390
 neigh_table_clear+0xb1/0x268
 ndisc_cleanup+0x21/0x38 [ipv6]
 init_module+0x2f5/0x468 [ipv6]
 do_one_initcall+0x1ba/0x628
 do_init_module+0x21a/0x530
 load_module+0x2550/0x2ea0
 __se_sys_finit_module+0x3d2/0x620
 __x64_sys_finit_module+0x76/0x88
 x64_sys_call+0x7ff/0xde8
 do_syscall_64+0xfb/0x1e8
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0x6f
RIP: 0033:0x7f575d6f2719
Code: 08 89 e8 5b 5d c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d b7 06 0d 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007fff82a2a268 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000139
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000557827b45310 RCX: 00007f575d6f2719
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007f575d584efd RDI: 0000000000000004
RBP: 00007f575d584efd R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000557827b47b00
R10: 0000000000000004 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000020000
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000557827b470e0 R15: 00007f575dbb4270
 </TASK>
Modules linked in: ipv6(+)

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38589?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38589?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38589 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38589 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-2025-38589 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38589 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 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-2025-38589 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-2025-38589/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38589/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38589
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38589
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38589

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38589/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.