CVE-2025-38052
Description
A vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's management of network namespaces. By manipulating the lifecycle of network namespaces, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability to cause a system crash or leak sensitive system memory. Exploitation of this vulnerability requires that a user has access to the system and the ability to create or destroy network namespaces. This typically requires administrative privileges, but could be exposed to an unprivileged user who has control over container lifecycles or a user who has administrative privileges within a container.
Statement
A slab-use-after-free vulnerability exists in the TIPC crypto subsystem in the Linux kernel. The bug is triggered when a network namespace is deleted while an asynchronous crypto operation is still pending, resulting in access to freed memory from a delayed worker context. The vulnerability requires local privileges to create and manipulate network namespaces and configure TIPC crypto bearers, which justifies the use of PR:L. Despite this, the impact on system memory and stability is significant due to the asynchronous nature of the cryptographic operation. Although not directly reachable from an unprivileged user context, this issue can be exploited by a local attacker with limited privileges, for example, in a container, to crash the kernel or perform arbitrary memory access via crafted namespace lifecycle manipulation.
Mitigation
Mitigation of this issue requires restricting access to the ability to create, modify, or destroy network namespaces. By default, this ability is restricted to privileged users. However, that restriction is only applicable to the host system itself and not to containerized applications. Administrators of container hosts should ensure that only trusted accounts can run containers.
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 | 7.8 | 7.8 | 8.8 |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | Low |
| User Interaction | None | None | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | High | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | High | High |
| Availability Impact | High | High | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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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