CVE-2025-38235

Source
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38235
Import Source
https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-38235.json
JSON Data
https://api.test.osv.dev/v1/vulns/CVE-2025-38235
Downstream
Published
2025-07-06T09:11:14.930Z
Modified
2025-12-02T13:35:18.619533Z
Summary
HID: appletb-kbd: fix "appletb_backlight" backlight device reference counting
Details

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

HID: appletb-kbd: fix "appletb_backlight" backlight device reference counting

During appletbkbdprobe, probe attempts to get the backlight device by name. When this happens backlightdevicegetbyname looks for a device in the backlight class which has name "appletb_backlight" and upon finding a match it increments the reference count for the device and returns it to the caller. However this reference is never released leading to a reference leak.

Fix this by decrementing the backlight device reference count on removal via put_device and on probe failure.

Database specific
{
    "cna_assigner": "Linux",
    "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/38xxx/CVE-2025-38235.json"
}
References

Affected packages

Git / git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git

Affected ranges

Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
93a0fc48948107e0cc34e1de22c3cb363a8f2783
Fixed
751d5437112a3f387de4ef6d2d1c131068ff7627
Fixed
4540e41e753a7d69ecd3f5bad51fe620205c3a18

Affected versions

v6.*

v6.14
v6.14-rc1
v6.14-rc2
v6.14-rc3
v6.14-rc4
v6.14-rc5
v6.14-rc6
v6.14-rc7
v6.15
v6.15-rc1
v6.15-rc2
v6.15-rc3
v6.15-rc4
v6.15-rc5
v6.15-rc6
v6.15-rc7
v6.15.1
v6.15.2
v6.15.3
v6.15.4

Linux / Kernel

Package

Name
Kernel

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
6.15.0
Fixed
6.15.5