Local service interruption via HDA topology memory leak
Published Jul 25, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leak in the ASoC SOF Intel HDA driver in Linux allows local users to reduce available kernel memory through device initialization. The driver stores a kstrdup-allocated topology filename in sof_pdata->tplg_filename, then overwrites that pointer without releasing the original allocation. Exposure requires local low-privileged access and an affected Intel HDA/SOF configuration; repeated leakage can interrupt service through memory exhaustion.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in the ASoC SOF Intel HDA driver in Linux allows local users to reduce available kernel memory through device initialization. The driver stores a kstrdup-allocated topology filename in sof_pdata->tplg_filename, then overwrites that pointer without releasing the original allocation. Exposure requires local low-privileged access and an affected Intel HDA/SOF configuration; repeated leakage can interrupt service through memory exhaustion.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-38438
- Published
- Jul 25, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 25, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 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=5.2
- Affected versionversion=dd96daca6c83ecaf37f38ff49d8d174bbff576b4 <58ecf51af12cb32b890858b52b2c34e80590c74a
- Affected versionversion=dd96daca6c83ecaf37f38ff49d8d174bbff576b4 <68397fda2caa90e99a7c0bcb2cf604e42ef3b91f
- Affected versionversion=dd96daca6c83ecaf37f38ff49d8d174bbff576b4 <6c038b58a2dc5a008c7e7a1297f5aaa4deaaaa7e
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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