# CVE-2025-38636: rv: Use strings in da monitors tracepoints

> A kernel bug causes out-of-bounds reads in tracepoints when KASAN is enabled, potentially leading to system crashes or instability.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:** 22 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-66611, BELL-CVE-2025-38636, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38636, GHSA-xg28-vm4v-pcgp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38636, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38636, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38636, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38636

## What is CVE-2025-38636?

CVE-2025-38636 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 22 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:

rv: Use strings in da monitors tracepoints

Using DA monitors tracepoints with KASAN enabled triggers the following
warning:

 BUG: KASAN: global-out-of-bounds in do_trace_event_raw_event_event_da_monitor+0xd6/0x1a0
 Read of size 32 at addr ffffffffaada8980 by task ...
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
 [...]
  do_trace_event_raw_event_event_da_monitor+0xd6/0x1a0
  ? __pfx_do_trace_event_raw_event_event_da_monitor+0x10/0x10
  ? trace_event_sncid+0x83/0x200
  trace_event_sncid+0x163/0x200
 [...]
 The buggy address belongs to the variable:
  automaton_snep+0x4e0/0x5e0

This is caused by the tracepoints reading 32 bytes __array instead of
__string from the automata definition. Such strings are literals and
reading 32 bytes ends up in out of bound memory accesses (e.g. the next
automaton's data in this case).
The error is harmless as, while printing the string, we stop at the null
terminator, but it should still be fixed.

Use the __string facilities while defining the tracepoints to avoid
reading out of bound memory.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38636?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38636?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38636 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38636 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-2025-38636 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38636 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 22 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-2025-38636 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-2025-38636/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38636/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38636
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38636
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38636

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38636/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.