CVE-2025-38071
Analyzed Analyzed - Analysis Complete
BaseFortify

Publication date: 2025-06-18

Last updated on: 2025-12-17

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/mm: Check return value from memblock_phys_alloc_range() At least with CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x100000, if there is < 4 MiB of contiguous free memory available at this point, the kernel will crash and burn because memblock_phys_alloc_range() returns 0 on failure, which leads memblock_phys_free() to throw the first 4 MiB of physical memory to the wolves. At a minimum it should fail gracefully with a meaningful diagnostic, but in fact everything seems to work fine without the weird reserve allocation.
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Meta Information
Published
2025-06-18
Last Modified
2025-12-17
Generated
2026-05-07
AI Q&A
2025-06-18
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-05
NVD
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 5 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel to 6.1.141 (exc)
linux linux_kernel From 6.2 (inc) to 6.6.93 (exc)
linux linux_kernel From 6.7 (inc) to 6.12.31 (exc)
linux linux_kernel From 6.13 (inc) to 6.14.9 (exc)
debian debian_linux 11.0
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-NVD-CWE-noinfo
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AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability occurs in the Linux kernel's memory allocation code for x86 architecture. Specifically, when there is less than 4 MiB of contiguous free memory available, the function memblock_phys_alloc_range() can fail and return 0. The kernel does not properly check this failure return value, which causes memblock_phys_free() to incorrectly release the first 4 MiB of physical memory, leading to a kernel crash. The issue arises because the kernel does not handle this failure gracefully and lacks meaningful diagnostics.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can cause the Linux kernel to crash if the system has less than 4 MiB of contiguous free memory at a critical point during boot or memory allocation. Such a crash can lead to system instability, downtime, and potential data loss or service interruption.


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