Vulnerability · Published Jul 25, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2025-38453io_uring/msg_ring: ensure io_kiocb freeing is deferred for RCU

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 8% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 91.6% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring/msg_ring: ensure io_kiocb freeing is deferred for RCU syzbot reports that defer/local task_work adding via msg_ring can hit a request that has been freed: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 19356 Comm: iou-wrk-19354 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc4-syzkaller-00108-g17bbde2e1716 #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/07/2025 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x189/0x250 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:408 [inline] print_report+0xd2/0x2b0 mm/kasan/report.c:521 kasan_report+0x118/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:634 io_req_local_work_add io_uring/io_uring.c:1184 [inline] __io_req_task_work_add+0x589/0x950 io_uring/io_uring.c:1252 io_msg_remote_post io_uring/msg_ring.c:103 [inline] io_msg_data_remote io_uring/msg_ring.c:133 [inline] __io_msg_ring_data+0x820/0xaa0 io_uring/msg_ring.c:151 io_msg_ring_data io_uring/msg_ring.c:173 [inline] io_msg_ring+0x134/0xa00 io_uring/msg_ring.c:314 __io_issue_sqe+0x17e/0x4b0 io_uring/io_uring.c:1739 io_issue_sqe+0x165/0xfd0 io_uring/io_uring.c:1762 io_wq_submit_work+0x6e9/0xb90 io_uring/io_uring.c:1874 io_worker_handle_work+0x7cd/0x1180 io_uring/io-wq.c:642 io_wq_worker+0x42f/0xeb0 io_uring/io-wq.c:696 ret_from_fork+0x3fc/0x770 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:148 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245 </TASK> which is supposed to be safe with how requests are allocated. But msg ring requests alloc and free on their own, and hence must defer freeing to a sane time. Add an rcu_head and use kfree_rcu() in both spots where requests are freed. Only the one in io_msg_tw_complete() is strictly required as it has been visible on the other ring, but use it consistently in the other spot as well. This should not cause any other issues outside of KASAN rightfully complaining about it.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
AlmaLinux:10kernel-abi-stablelists6.12.0-124.31.1.el10_1ALSA-2026:1690
AlmaLinux:10kernel-doc6.12.0-124.31.1.el10_1ALSA-2026:1690
Debian:13linux6.12.48-1DSA-6008-1
Debian:13linux6.12.48-1DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38453
Debian:14linux6.16.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38453
Rocky Linux:10kernel0:6.12.0-124.31.1.el10_1RLSA-2026:1690
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.146.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.146.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1USN-7879-3
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.146.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1USN-7934-1
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.146.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:25.10linux-azure-fdeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-nvidia-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.146.14.0-1020.21~24.04.1USN-7879-4
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.146.14.0-1020.21~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.146.14.0-36.36~24.04.1USN-7879-1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.146.14.0-1016.16UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.146.14.0-1016.16USN-7880-1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.146.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.146.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1USN-7879-3
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.146.14.0-36.36.1~24.04.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-38453

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux 0617bb500bfabf8447062f1e1edde92ed2b638f1 – before 094ba14a471cc6c68078c7ad488539eaf32c22770617bb500bfabf8447062f1e1edde92ed2b638f1 – before e5b3432f4a6b418b8bd8fc91f38efbf17a77167a0617bb500bfabf8447062f1e1edde92ed2b638f1 – before fc582cd26e888b0652bc1494f252329453fd3b23
Linux Linux 6.11

References