CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-38019 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mlxsw: spectrum_router: Fix use-after-free when deleting GRE net devices The driver only offloads neighbors that are constructed on top of net devices registered by it or their uppers (which are all Ethernet). The device supports GRE encapsulation and decapsulation of forwarded traffic, but the driver will not offload dummy neighbors constructed on top of GRE net devices as they are not uppers of its net devices: # ip link add name gre1 up type gre tos inherit local 192.0.2.1 remote 198.51.100.1 # ip neigh add 0.0.0.0 lladdr 0.0.0.0 nud noarp dev gre1 $ ip neigh show dev gre1 nud noarp 0.0.0.0 lladdr 0.0.0.0 NOARP (Note that the neighbor is not marked with 'offload') When the driver is reloaded and the existing configuration is replayed, the driver does not perform the same check regarding existing neighbors and offloads the previously added one: # devlink dev reload pci/0000:01:00.0 $ ip neigh show dev gre1 nud noarp 0.0.0.0 lladdr 0.0.0.0 offload NOARP If the neighbor is later deleted, the driver will ignore the notification (given the GRE net device is not its upper) and will therefore keep referencing freed me…

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2025-06-18
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-416

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 6.15

Showing 2 representative product identities from 9 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Use-after-free, double free, and expired resource use

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace ownership, references, callbacks, asynchronous tasks, and teardown paths around the affected object or resource.
  • Identify reachable inputs and timing or state transitions that can release the object while references remain.
  • Confirm affected builds, allocators, feature flags, architectures, and process privileges.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained ownership or lifetime fix and rebuild all artifacts containing the affected native code.
  • Use explicit ownership, safe reference management, cancellation and join semantics, and idempotent teardown.
  • Add deterministic lifetime tests plus isolated sanitizer and concurrency coverage for shutdown and error paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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