CVE-2025-38703

7.8 HIGH 0.2% exploit odds Fix listed Memory safety OS & kernel

What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe: Make dma-fences compliant with the safe access rules Xe can free some of the data pointed to by the dma-fences it exports. Most notably the timeline name can get freed if userspace closes the associated submit queue. At the same time the fence could have been exported to a third party (for example a sync_fence fd) which will then cause an use- after-free on subsequent access. To make this safe we need to make the driver compliant with the newly documented dma-fence rules. Driver has to ensure a RCU grace period between signalling a fence and freeing any data pointed to by said fence. For the timeline name we simply make the queue be freed via kfree_rcu and for the shared lock associated with multiple queues we add a RCU grace period before freeing the per GT structure holding the lock.

At a glance

Exploitability: Can be exploited locally on the machine with a low-privilege account. High risk of data exposure, data tampering, service disruption.
Exploit odds: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).
Fix: A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

2025-09-04 16:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2026-10-19 21:10 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
Exploit odds: 0.2% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
Severity: 7.8 HIGH (CVSS).
Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published: 2025-09-04 16:15 UTC
Last modified: 2026-10-19 21:10 UTC
Exploit probability: 0.2% · EPSS, next 30 days
Weakness: CWE-416 · Use after free
Record status: Modified

Affected

Linux Kernel < 6.12.43
Linux Kernel < 6.15.11
Linux Kernel < 6.16.2

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 7.8

Attack vector: Local
Complexity: Low
Privileges needed: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Raw vector

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

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2025-38703.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2025-38703. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

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Fix and advisories

References

NVD record · CVE.org record