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7.8

CVE-2025-38488: Linux Kernel Vulnerability: Linux SMB Client Use-After-Free Crash

CVE-2025-38488
Summary

A bug in the Linux kernel's SMB client can cause a crash when using hardware-based encryption. This happens when the kernel frees memory too quickly, before the encryption operation is complete. To fix this, the developers have updated the kernel to handle asynchronous encryption properly.

What to do

No fix is available yet. Check with your software vendor for updates.

Affected software
VendorProductAffected versions
linux linux_kernel >= 5.10.237, < 5.10.241
>= 5.15.181, < 5.15.190
>= 6.1.128, < 6.1.147
>= 6.6.57, < 6.6.100
>= 6.11.4, < 6.12.40
>= 6.13, < 6.15.8
6.16
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Original title
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 han...
Original description
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:

crypt_message()
// Allocate the creq buffer containing the req
creq = smb2_get_aead_req(..., &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 crypto_aead_encrypt/decrypt() returns -EINPROGRESS,
the operation completes asynchronously. Without crypto_wait_req(),
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 crypto_alloc_aead() with mask=0 doesn't
guarantee synchronous operation. Even without CRYPTO_ALG_ASYNC in
the mask, async implementations can be selected.

Fix by restoring the async crypto handling:
- DECLARE_CRYPTO_WAIT(wait) for completion tracking
- aead_request_set_callback() for async completion notification
- crypto_wait_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.
nvd CVSS3.1 7.8
Vulnerability type
CWE-416 Use After Free
Published: 28 Jul 2025 · Updated: 20 Jul 2026 · First seen: 7 Mar 2026