CVE-2025-38469

Host service interruption via leaked poll arrays

Published Jul 28, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026

Memory leak in KVM Xen schedop polling in affected Linux versions allows guest OS users to exhaust host memory via invalid port arrays. When kvm_read_guest_virt fails after kmalloc_array allocates ports for nr_ports greater than one, the function returns without reaching the out label that frees the buffer. A guest must invoke Xen schedop polling with multiple ports and an unreadable guest address; repeated failures leak host kernel memory and can interrupt service.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.15%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Memory leak in KVM Xen schedop polling in affected Linux versions allows guest OS users to exhaust host memory via invalid port arrays. When kvm_read_guest_virt fails after kmalloc_array allocates ports for nr_ports greater than one, the function returns without reaching the out label that frees the buffer. A guest must invoke Xen schedop polling with multiple ports and an unreadable guest address; repeated failures leak host kernel memory and can interrupt service.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-38469
Published
Jul 28, 2025
Updated
May 11, 2026
Vendor
The Linux Kernel Organization
Product
Linux
Classifications
T1499.001
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jul 28, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=6.2
  2. Affected versionversion=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <061c553c66bc1638c280739999224c8000fd4602
  3. Affected versionversion=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <3ee59c38ae7369ad1f7b846e05633ccf0d159fab
  4. Affected versionversion=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <5a53249d149f48b558368c5338b9921b76a12f8c
  5. Affected versionversion=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <fd627ac8a5cff4d45269f164b13ddddc0726f2cc

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

The Linux Kernel Organization · Linuxversion=6.2; version=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <061c553c66bc1638c280739999224c8000fd4602; version=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <3ee59c38ae7369ad1f7b846e05633ccf0d159fab; version=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <5a53249d149f48b558368c5338b9921b76a12f8c; version=92c58965e9656dc6e682a8ffe520fac0fb256d13 <fd627ac8a5cff4d45269f164b13ddddc0726f2cc

Published CVSS scores

6.8SUSECVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
5.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
5.5SUSECVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

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.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

T1499.001OS Exhaustion Flood

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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