DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38488
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.
Risk Scores
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Debian:14 | linux | 6.12.74-2, 6.14.6-1~exp1, 6.15-1~exp1 |
| Debian:11 | linux-6.1 | 0, 6.1.112-1~deb11u1, 6.1.106-3~deb11u3 |
| Debian:13 | linux | 6.12.38-1, 0, 6.12.38-1 |
| Debian:12 | linux | 6.1.52-1, 0, 6.1.106-2 |
| Debian:11 | linux | 5.10.209-2, 5.10.216-1, 5.10.223-1 |
Timeline
- Jul 28, 2025 CVE Published
- Apr 28, 2026 CVE Updated