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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

CVE-2025-38221: ext4: fix out of bounds punch offset

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 28/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.17% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 28b62cb58fd014338f5004170f2e3a35bf0af238, a4d60ba277ecd8a98c5a593cbc0ef2237c20a541, b5e58bcd79625423487fa3ecba8e8411b5396327.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 28b62cb58fd014338f5004170f2e3a35bf0af238, a4d60ba277ecd8a98c5a593cbc0ef2237c20a541, b5e58bcd79625423487fa3ecba8e8411b5396327 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix out of bounds punch offset Punching a hole with a start offset that exceeds max_end is not permitted and will result in a negative length in the truncate_inode_partial_folio() function while truncating the page cache, potentially leading to undesirable consequences. A simple reproducer: truncate -s 9895604649994 /mnt/foo xfs_io -c "pwrite 8796093022208 4096" /mnt/foo xfs_io -c "fpunch 8796093022213 25769803777" /mnt/foo kernel BUG at include/linux/highmem.h:275! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 710 Comm: xfs_io Not tainted 6.15.0-rc3 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-2.fc40 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:zero_user_segments.constprop.0+0xd7/0x110 RSP: 0018:ffffc90001cf3b38 EFLAGS: 00010287 RAX: 0000000000000005 RBX: ffffea0001485e40 RCX: 0000000000001000 RDX: 000000000040b000 RSI: 0000000000000005 RDI: 000000000040b000 RBP: 000000000040affb R08: ffff888000000000 R09: ffffea0000000000 R10: 0000000000000003 R11: 00000000fffc7fc5 R12: 0000000000000005 R13: 000000000040affb R14: ffffea0001485e40 R15: ffff888031cd3000 FS: 00007f4f63d0b780(0000) GS:ffff8880d337d000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 000000001ae0b038 CR3: 00000000536aa000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> truncate_inode_partial_folio+0x3dd/0x620 truncate_inode_pages_range+0x226/0x720 ? bdev_getblk+0x52/0x3e0 ? ext4_get_group_desc+0x78/0x150 ? crc32c_arch+0xfd/0x180 ? __ext4_get_inode_loc+0x18c/0x840 ? ext4_inode_csum+0x117/0x160 ? jbd2_journal_dirty_metadata+0x61/0x390 ? __ext4_handle_dirty_metadata+0xa0/0x2b0 ? kmem_cache_free+0x90/0x5a0 ? jbd2_journal_stop+0x1d5/0x550 ? __ext4_journal_stop+0x49/0x100 truncate_pagecache_range+0x50/0x80 ext4_truncate_page_cache_block_range+0x57/0x3a0 ext4_punch_hole+0x1fe/0x670 ext4_fallocate+0x792/0x17d0 ? __count_memcg_events+0x175/0x2a0 vfs_fallocate+0x121/0x560 ksys_fallocate+0x51/0xc0 __x64_sys_fallocate+0x24/0x40 x64_sys_call+0x18d2/0x4170 do_syscall_64+0xa7/0x220 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Fix this by filtering out cases where the punching start offset exceeds max_end.

HighCVSS 7.1 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Jul 4, 2025
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.1% · 6th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

28

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
28 / 40 · 7.1 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.1%

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  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
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  • A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
linuxlinux kernel

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • linux linux kernel6.15 and later · before 6.15.4

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Linux). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Linux Linux

    • 6.15affected
    • 33f61ecabb10098b63dad3b729552779379f900d and later · before a4d60ba277ecd8a98c5a593cbc0ef2237c20a541affected · git
    • 982bf37da09d078570650b691d9084f43805a5de and later · before 28b62cb58fd014338f5004170f2e3a35bf0af238affected · git
    • 982bf37da09d078570650b691d9084f43805a5de and later · before b5e58bcd79625423487fa3ecba8e8411b5396327affected · git
    • before 6.15not affected · semver
    • 6.15.4 and later · up to and including 6.15.*not affected · semver
    • 6.16 and laternot affected · original_commit_for_fix

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-31431crypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-placeKEV
    90Now
  • CVE-2022-0847A flaw was found in the way the "flags" member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe KEV
    89Now
  • CVE-2021-22555Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACEKEV
    85Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2025-38219Jul 4, 2025 · f2fs: prevent kernel warning due to negative i_nlink from corrupted image
    22Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2025-38220Jul 4, 2025 · ext4: only dirty folios when data journaling regular files
    22Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2025-38223Jul 4, 2025 · ceph: avoid kernel BUG for encrypted inode with unaligned file size
    22Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Linux Linux28b62cb58fd014338f5004170f2e3a35bf0af238Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxa4d60ba277ecd8a98c5a593cbc0ef2237c20a541Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxb5e58bcd79625423487fa3ecba8e8411b5396327Vendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-125 · Out-of-bounds Read

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Show all references (2 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records