# CVE-2025-38713: hfsplus: fix slab-out-of-bounds read in hfsplus_uni2asc()

> A slab-out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel's HFS+ filesystem driver allows local attackers to cause a system crash.

- **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:** 4 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38713, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38713, GHSA-f84m-84r4-h992, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38713, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38713, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38713, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38713, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38713

## What is CVE-2025-38713?

CVE-2025-38713 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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:

hfsplus: fix slab-out-of-bounds read in hfsplus_uni2asc()

The hfsplus_readdir() method is capable to crash by calling
hfsplus_uni2asc():

[  667.121659][ T9805] ==================================================================
[  667.122651][ T9805] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in hfsplus_uni2asc+0x902/0xa10
[  667.123627][ T9805] Read of size 2 at addr ffff88802592f40c by task repro/9805
[  667.124578][ T9805]
[  667.124876][ T9805] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 9805 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3 #1 PREEMPT(full)
[  667.124886][ T9805] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
[  667.124890][ T9805] Call Trace:
[  667.124893][ T9805]  <TASK>
[  667.124896][ T9805]  dump_stack_lvl+0x10e/0x1f0
[  667.124911][ T9805]  print_report+0xd0/0x660
[  667.124920][ T9805]  ? __virt_addr_valid+0x81/0x610
[  667.124928][ T9805]  ? __phys_addr+0xe8/0x180
[  667.124934][ T9805]  ? hfsplus_uni2asc+0x902/0xa10
[  667.124942][ T9805]  kasan_report+0xc6/0x100
[  667.124950][ T9805]  ? hfsplus_uni2asc+0x902/0xa10
[  667.124959][ T9805]  hfsplus_uni2asc+0x902/0xa10
[  667.124966][ T9805]  ? hfsplus_bnode_read+0x14b/0x360
[  667.124974][ T9805]  hfsplus_readdir+0x845/0xfc0
[  667.124984][ T9805]  ? __pfx_hfsplus_readdir+0x10/0x10
[  667.124994][ T9805]  ? stack_trace_save+0x8e/0xc0
[  667.125008][ T9805]  ? iterate_dir+0x18b/0xb20
[  667.125015][ T9805]  ? trace_lock_acquire+0x85/0xd0
[  667.125022][ T9805]  ? lock_acquire+0x30/0x80
[  667.125029][ T9805]  ? iterate_dir+0x18b/0xb20
[  667.125037][ T9805]  ? down_read_killable+0x1ed/0x4c0
[  667.125044][ T9805]  ? putname+0x154/0x1a0
[  667.125051][ T9805]  ? __pfx_down_read_killable+0x10/0x10
[  667.125058][ T9805]  ? apparmor_file_permission+0x239/0x3e0
[  667.125069][ T9805]  iterate_dir+0x296/0xb20
[  667.125076][ T9805]  __x64_sys_getdents64+0x13c/0x2c0
[  667.125084][ T9805]  ? __pfx___x64_sys_getdents64+0x10/0x10
[  667.125091][ T9805]  ? __x64_sys_openat+0x141/0x200
[  667.125126][ T9805]  ? __pfx_filldir64+0x10/0x10
[  667.125134][ T9805]  ? do_user_addr_fault+0x7fe/0x12f0
[  667.125143][ T9805]  do_syscall_64+0xc9/0x480
[  667.125151][ T9805]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
[  667.125158][ T9805] RIP: 0033:0x7fa8753b2fc9
[  667.125164][ T9805] Code: 00 c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 48
[  667.125172][ T9805] RSP: 002b:00007ffe96f8e0f8 EFLAGS: 00000217 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000d9
[  667.125181][ T9805] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007fa8753b2fc9
[  667.125185][ T9805] RDX: 0000000000000400 RSI: 00002000000063c0 RDI: 0000000000000004
[  667.125190][ T9805] RBP: 00007ffe96f8e110 R08: 00007ffe96f8e110 R09: 00007ffe96f8e110
[  667.125195][ T9805] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000217 R12: 0000556b1e3b4260
[  667.125199][ T9805] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
[  667.125207][ T9805]  </TASK>
[  667.125210][ T9805]
[  667.145632][ T9805] Allocated by task 9805:
[  667.145991][ T9805]  kasan_save_stack+0x20/0x40
[  667.146352][ T9805]  kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
[  667.146717][ T9805]  __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0
[  667.147065][ T9805]  __kmalloc_noprof+0x205/0x550
[  667.147448][ T9805]  hfsplus_find_init+0x95/0x1f0
[  667.147813][ T9805]  hfsplus_readdir+0x220/0xfc0
[  667.148174][ T9805]  iterate_dir+0x296/0xb20
[  667.148549][ T9805]  __x64_sys_getdents64+0x13c/0x2c0
[  667.148937][ T9805]  do_syscall_64+0xc9/0x480
[  667.149291][ T9805]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
[  667.149809][ T9805]
[  667.150030][ T9805] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88802592f000
[  667.150030][ T9805]  which belongs to the cache kmalloc-2k of size 2048
[  667.151282][ T9805] The buggy address is located 0 bytes to the right of
[  667.151282][ T9805]  allocated 1036-byte region [ffff88802592f000, ffff88802592f40c)
[  667.1
---truncated---

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38713?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38713?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38713 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38713 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38713 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38713 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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-2025-38713 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2025-38713/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38713/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38713
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38713
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38713

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38713/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
