# CVE-2025-38703: drm/xe: Make dma-fences compliant with the safe access rules

> A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Xe GPU driver allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or escalate privileges via improper memory management of DMA fences.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 4 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38703, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38703, GHSA-q5gc-8mmj-m6hh, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38703, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38703, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38703, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38703, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38703

## What is CVE-2025-38703?

CVE-2025-38703 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Sep 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:

drm/xe: Make dma-fences compliant with the safe access rules

Xe can free some of the data pointed to by the dma-fences it exports. Most
notably the timeline name can get freed if userspace closes the associated
submit queue. At the same time the fence could have been exported to a
third party (for example a sync_fence fd) which will then cause an use-
after-free on subsequent access.

To make this safe we need to make the driver compliant with the newly
documented dma-fence rules. Driver has to ensure a RCU grace period
between signalling a fence and freeing any data pointed to by said fence.

For the timeline name we simply make the queue be freed via kfree_rcu and
for the shared lock associated with multiple queues we add a RCU grace
period before freeing the per GT structure holding the lock.

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38703?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38703?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38703 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38703 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-2025-38703 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38703 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Sep 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-2025-38703 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-2025-38703/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38703/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38703
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38703
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38703

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38703/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.