7.8highHigh

CVE-2025-38616

Linux Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tls: handle data disappearing from under the TLS ULP TLS expects that it owns the receive queue of the TCP socket. This cannot be guaranteed in case the reader of the TCP socket entered before the TLS ULP was installed, or uses some non-standard read API (eg. zerocopy ones). Replace the WARN_ON() and a buggy early exit (which leaves anchor pointing to a freed skb) with real error handling. Wipe the parsing state and tell the reader to retry. We already reload the anchor every time we (re)acquire the socket lock, so the only condition we need to avoid is an out of bounds read (not having enough bytes in the socket for previously parsed record len). If some data was read from under TLS but there's enough in the queue we'll reload and decrypt what is most likely not a valid TLS record. Leading to some undefined behavior from TLS perspective (corrupting a stream? missing an alert? missing an attack?) but no kernel crash should take place.

Exploitation status

  • A vendor advisory or patch reference has been published.

What the metrics mean

  • It is requires local access to the machine.
  • For an attacker who can reach it, no special conditions are needed to exploit it.
  • To exploit it, an ordinary user account is needed.
  • Beyond that, no action by a user is required.

Scoring

CVSS
7.8 (v3.1)
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness
CWE-125
Assigned by
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Dates

Published
2025-08-22
Last modified
2026-08-27
Sources
NVD

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel6.0 - 6.6.103, 6.7 - 6.12.43, 6.13 - 6.15.11, 6.16 - 6.16.2, 6.17

As listed in the NVD configuration data. Not a statement about your estate.

References