CVE-2025-38442: block: reject bs > ps block devices when THP is disabled

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-07-25 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: block: reject bs > ps block devices when THP is disabled If THP is disabled and when a block device with logical block size > page size is present, the following null ptr deref panic happens during boot: [ [13.2 mK AOSAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000K0 0 0[07] [ 13.017749] RIP: 0010:create_empty_buffers+0x3b/0x380 <snip> [ 13.025448] Call Trace: [ 13.025692] <TASK> [ 13.025895] block_read_full_folio+0x610/0x780 [ 13.026379] ? __pfx_blkdev_get_block+0x10/0x10 [ 13.027008] ? __folio_batch_add_and_move+0x1fa/0x2b0 [ 13.027548] ? __pfx_blkdev_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 13.028080] filemap_read_folio+0x9b/0x200 [ 13.028526] ? __pfx_filemap_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 13.029030] ? __filemap_get_folio+0x43/0x620 [ 13.029497] do_read_cache_folio+0x155/0x3b0 [ 13.029962] ? __pfx_blkdev_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 13.030381] read_part_sector+0xb7/0x2a0 [ 13.030805] read_lba+0x174/0x2c0 <snip> [ 13.045348] nvme_scan_ns+0x684/0x850 [nvme_core] [ 13.045858] ? __pfx_nvme_scan_ns+0x10/0x10 [nvme_core] [ 13.046414] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x15/0x40 [ 13.046843] ? __switch_to+0x523/0x10a0 [ 13.047253] ? kvm_clock_get_cycles+0x14/0x30 [ 13.047742] ? __pfx_nvme_scan_ns_async+0x10/0x10 [nvme_core] [ 13.048353] async_run_entry_fn+0x96/0x4f0 [ 13.048787] process_one_work+0x667/0x10a0 [ 13.049219] worker_thread+0x63c/0xf60 As large folio support depends on THP, only allow bs > ps block devices if THP is enabled.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.15 before 6.15.7; 6.16-rc1, 6.16-rc2, 6.16-rc3, 6.16-rc4, 6.16-rc5 — fixed in 6.15.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.15.7. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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