CVE-2025-38488

Source
https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38488
Import Source
https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-38488.json
JSON Data
https://api.test.osv.dev/v1/vulns/CVE-2025-38488
Downstream
Related
Published
2025-07-28T11:21:52.085Z
Modified
2026-03-12T02:19:41.525057Z
Summary
smb: client: fix use-after-free in crypt_message when using async crypto
Details

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

smb: client: fix use-after-free in crypt_message when using async crypto

The CVE-2024-50047 fix removed asynchronous crypto handling from crypt_message(), assuming all crypto operations are synchronous. However, when hardware crypto accelerators are used, this can cause use-after-free crashes:

cryptmessage() // Allocate the creq buffer containing the req creq = smb2getaeadreq(..., &req);

// Async encryption returns -EINPROGRESS immediately
rc = enc ? crypto_aead_encrypt(req) : crypto_aead_decrypt(req);

// Free creq while async operation is still in progress
kvfree_sensitive(creq, ...);

Hardware crypto modules often implement async AEAD operations for performance. When cryptoaeadencrypt/decrypt() returns -EINPROGRESS, the operation completes asynchronously. Without cryptowaitreq(), the function immediately frees the request buffer, leading to crashes when the driver later accesses the freed memory.

This results in a use-after-free condition when the hardware crypto driver later accesses the freed request structure, leading to kernel crashes with NULL pointer dereferences.

The issue occurs because cryptoallocaead() with mask=0 doesn't guarantee synchronous operation. Even without CRYPTOALGASYNC in the mask, async implementations can be selected.

Fix by restoring the async crypto handling: - DECLARECRYPTOWAIT(wait) for completion tracking - aeadrequestsetcallback() for async completion notification - cryptowait_req() to wait for operation completion

This ensures the request buffer isn't freed until the crypto operation completes, whether synchronous or asynchronous, while preserving the CVE-2024-50047 fix.

Database specific
{
    "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/38xxx/CVE-2025-38488.json",
    "cna_assigner": "Linux"
}
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
8f14a476abba13144df5434871a7225fd29af633
Fixed
5d047b12f86cc3b9fde1171c02d9bccf4dba0632
Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
ef51c0d544b1518b35364480317ab6d3468f205d
Fixed
6550b2bef095d0dd2d2c8390d2ea4c3837028833
Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
bce966530fd5542bbb422cb45ecb775f7a1a6bc3
Fixed
9a1d3e8d40f151c2d5a5f40c410e6e433f62f438
Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
0809fb86ad13b29e1d6d491364fc7ea4fb545995
Fixed
15a0a5de49507062bc3be4014a403d8cea5533de
Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
b0abcd65ec545701b8793e12bc27dc98042b151a
Fixed
2a76bc2b24ed889a689fb1c9015307bf16aafb5b
Fixed
8ac90f6824fc44d2e55a82503ddfc95defb19ae0
Fixed
b220bed63330c0e1733dc06ea8e75d5b9962b6b6
Type
GIT
Repo
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
Events
Introduced
0 Unknown introduced commit / All previous commits are affected
Last affected
538c26d9bf70c90edc460d18c81008a4e555925a

Database specific

source
"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-38488.json"