CVE-2025-38609 PM / devfreq: Check governor before using governor->name

What is CVE-2025-38609?

CVE-2025-38609 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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:

PM / devfreq: Check governor before using governor->name

Commit 96ffcdf239de ("PM / devfreq: Remove redundant governor_name from struct devfreq") removes governor_name and uses governor->name to replace it. But devfreq->governor may be NULL and directly using devfreq->governor->name may cause null pointer exception. Move the check of governor to before using governor->name.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38609?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38609?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-38609 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38609 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-66470, AZL-73605, BELL-CVE-2025-38609, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38609, GHSA-jf88-w289-cr26, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38609 and 4 more.