CVE-2025-38477

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Last Modified: UTC

Moderate Moderate Impact What does this mean?
7.3 CVSS v3 Base Score

Description

The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: sch_qfq: Fix race condition on qfq_aggregate A race condition can occur when 'agg' is modified in qfq_change_agg (called during qfq_enqueue) while other threads access it concurrently. For example, qfq_dump_class may trigger a NULL dereference, and qfq_delete_class may cause a use-after-free. This patch addresses the issue by: 1. Moved qfq_destroy_class into the critical section. 2. Added sch_tree_lock protection to qfq_dump_class and qfq_dump_class_stats.

Statement

This patch fixes a race condition in the QFQ packet scheduler, where concurrent modification and access to cl->agg may result in a use-after-free or NULL pointer dereference. The bug occurs when qfq_change_class() reassigns the agg pointer while other threads read it in qfq_dump_class() or qfq_delete_class(). The fix synchronizes access using sch_tree_lock() and reorders destruction logic to avoid concurrency issues. This issue can be triggered locally by users with CAP_NET_ADMIN privileges and may lead to kernel crashes or denial-of-service. Although the vulnerability involves a use-after-free, it only results in stale reads of deallocated memory, used in netlink reporting functions. There is no write primitive, function pointer corruption, or kernel state modification, making privilege escalation infeasible in this case.

Mitigation

To mitigate this issue, prevent module sch_qfq from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.

Additional Information

External References

Content from www.cve.org is not included.https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38477

Content from nvd.nist.gov is not included.https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38477

Content from lore.kernel.org is not included.https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025072813-CVE-2025-38477-8b42@gregkh/T

Affected Packages and Issued Red Hat Security Errata

Products / Services Components State Errata
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 kernel Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support kernel-rt Fixed RHSA-2025:17109
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:17161
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt Affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:15008
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 Advanced Update Support kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:21667
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:22752
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Extended Update Support Long-Life Add-On kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:22752
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:17124
Unless explicitly stated as not affected, all previous versions of packages in any minor update stream of a product listed here should be assumed vulnerable, although may not have been subject to full analysis.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authorities (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown Red Hat NVD
CVSS v3 Base Score 7.3 4.7
Attack Vector Local Local
Attack Complexity Low High
Privileges Required Low Low
User Interaction None None
Scope Unchanged Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact High None
Integrity Impact Low None
Availability Impact High High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H

NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

 For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?
  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • "Affected" means that our Analysis Team has determined that this product is affected by this vulnerability and might release a fix to address this in the near future.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

 A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

 A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

 A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

 The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

 In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our This content is not included.Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

My product is listed as "Out of Support Scope". What does this mean?

 When a product is listed as "Out of Support Scope", it means a vulnerability with the impact level assigned to this CVE is no longer covered by its current support lifecycle phase. The product has been identified to contain the impacted component, but analysis to determine whether it is affected or not by this vulnerability was not performed. The product should be assumed to be affected. Customers are advised to apply any mitigation options documented on this page, consider removing or disabling the impacted component, or upgrade to a supported version of the product that has an update available.