Process data leakage and corruption via stale registers
Published Jul 25, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Kernel context corruption in Linux 6.14 through 6.15.4 allows local users to read or alter other processes' vector state. On RISC-V T-Head xtheadvector systems, arch/riscv/include/asm/vector.h restores only v0-v7, leaving v8-v31 stale across context switches and signal returns. Any unprivileged local task can sample another process's register contents or poison them, causing incorrect computation, data corruption, or process crashes.
Summary
What happened
Kernel context corruption in Linux 6.14 through 6.15.4 allows local users to read or alter other processes' vector state. On RISC-V T-Head xtheadvector systems, arch/riscv/include/asm/vector.h restores only v0-v7, leaving v8-v31 stale across context switches and signal returns. Any unprivileged local task can sample another process's register contents or poison them, causing incorrect computation, data corruption, or process crashes.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-38435
- Published
- Jul 25, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1005
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 25, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.14
- Affected versionversion=d863910eabaffc68eb28aaf476dd870fc3f7197d <4262bd0d9cc704ea1365ac00afc1272400c2cbef
- Affected versionversion=d863910eabaffc68eb28aaf476dd870fc3f7197d <dd5ceea8d50e9e108a10d1e0d89fa2c9ff442ca2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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