CVE-2025-38001
Description
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability, which also presents a potential infinite loop condition, has been resolved in the Linux kernel. This flaw affects the HFSC (Hierarchical Fair Service Curve) queuing discipline when it is used in conjunction with NETEM (Network Emulation).
A malicious user could exploit this by repeatedly inserting a class into the eltree due to insufficient validation in prior logic, effectively bypassing the protection provided by the HFSC_RSC flag. Successful exploitation could lead to memory corruption, an infinite loop, or a system crash, severely impacting network availability and system stability.
Statement
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and later releases, regular (non-root) users can exploit this issue by abusing unprivileged user namespaces. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 are not affected by this CVE because they did not include the upstream commit that introduced the CVE (37d9cf1).
Mitigation
To mitigate this issue, prevent module sch_hfsc from being loaded. Please see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for how to blacklist a kernel module to prevent it from loading automatically.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7 | 5.5 | 7.8 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | Local |
| Attack Complexity | High | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | Low |
| User Interaction | None | None | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | None | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | None | High |
| Availability Impact | High | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
The use of previously freed memory may corrupt valid data, if the memory area in question has been allocated and used properly elsewhere.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
If chunk consolidation occurs after the use of previously freed data, the process may crash when invalid data is used as chunk information.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
Read operations on freed memory can sometimes leak sensitive information instead of causing a crash
Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
If malicious data is entered before chunk consolidation can take place, it may be possible to take advantage of a write-what-where primitive to execute arbitrary code. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.
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