---
id: CVE-2025-37738
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  ext4: ignore xattrs past end

  Once inside 'ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all' we should
  ignore xattrs entries past the 'end' entry.

  This fixes the following KASAN reported …
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  ext4: ignore xattrs past end

  Once inside 'ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all' we should
  ignore xattrs entries past the 'end' entry.

  This fixes the following KASAN reported …
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-416
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - linux_kernel < 5.4.293
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.237'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.181'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.135'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.88'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.24'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.12'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.14, < 6.14.3'
  - debian_linux = 11.0
patched:
  - linux_kernel 6.14.3
published: '2025-05-01'
updated: '2026-10-15'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T22:18:16.920'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37738'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/362a90cecd36e8a5c415966d0b75b04a0270e4dd'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bc6317033f365ce578eb6039445fb66162722fd'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6aff941cb0f7d0c897c3698ad2e30672709135e3'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/76c365fa7e2a8bb85f0190cdb4b8cdc99b2fdce3'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/836e625b03a666cf93ff5be328c8cb30336db872'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c8e008b60492cf6fd31ef127aea6d02fd3d314cd'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf9291a3449b04688b81e32621e88de8f4314b54'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eb59cc31b6ea076021d14b04e7faab1636b87d0e'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f737418b6de31c962c7192777ee4018906975383'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html'
    label: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
  - url: 'https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00045.html'
    label: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00216
epssPercentile: 0.11947
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-10-15T21:44:53.666382Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-10-15T22:48:25.477Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: ignore xattrs past end

Once inside 'ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all' we should
ignore xattrs entries past the 'end' entry.

This fixes the following KASAN reported issue:

==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all+0xb8c/0xe90
Read of size 4 at addr ffff888012c120c4 by task repro/2065

CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 2065 Comm: repro Not tainted 6.13.0-rc2+ #11
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dump_stack_lvl+0x1fd/0x300
 ? tcp_gro_dev_warn+0x260/0x260
 ? _printk+0xc0/0x100
 ? read_lock_is_recursive+0x10/0x10
 ? irq_work_queue+0x72/0xf0
 ? __virt_addr_valid+0x17b/0x4b0
 print_address_description+0x78/0x390
 print_report+0x107/0x1f0
 ? __virt_addr_valid+0x17b/0x4b0
 ? __virt_addr_valid+0x3ff/0x4b0
 ? __phys_addr+0xb5/0x160
 ? ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all+0xb8c/0xe90
 kasan_report+0xcc/0x100
 ? ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all+0xb8c/0xe90
 ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all+0xb8c/0xe90
 ? ext4_xattr_delete_inode+0xd30/0xd30
 ? __ext4_journal_ensure_credits+0x5f0/0x5f0
 ? __ext4_journal_ensure_credits+0x2b/0x5f0
 ? inode_update_timestamps+0x410/0x410
 ext4_xattr_delete_inode+0xb64/0xd30
 ? ext4_truncate+0xb70/0xdc0
 ? ext4_expand_extra_isize_ea+0x1d20/0x1d20
 ? __ext4_mark_inode_dirty+0x670/0x670
 ? ext4_journal_check_start+0x16f/0x240
 ? ext4_inode_is_fast_symlink+0x2f2/0x3a0
 ext4_evict_inode+0xc8c/0xff0
 ? ext4_inode_is_fast_symlink+0x3a0/0x3a0
 ? do_raw_spin_unlock+0x53/0x8a0
 ? ext4_inode_is_fast_symlink+0x3a0/0x3a0
 evict+0x4ac/0x950
 ? proc_nr_inodes+0x310/0x310
 ? trace_ext4_drop_inode+0xa2/0x220
 ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x1a/0x30
 ? iput+0x4cb/0x7e0
 do_unlinkat+0x495/0x7c0
 ? try_break_deleg+0x120/0x120
 ? 0xffffffff81000000
 ? __check_object_size+0x15a/0x210
 ? strncpy_from_user+0x13e/0x250
 ? getname_flags+0x1dc/0x530
 __x64_sys_unlinkat+0xc8/0xf0
 do_syscall_64+0x65/0x110
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0x6f
RIP: 0033:0x434ffd
Code: 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 00 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 8
RSP: 002b:00007ffc50fa7b28 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000107
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007ffc50fa7e18 RCX: 0000000000434ffd
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000020000240 RDI: 0000000000000005
RBP: 00007ffc50fa7be0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000001
R13: 00007ffc50fa7e08 R14: 00000000004bbf30 R15: 0000000000000001
 </TASK>

The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff888012c12000
 which belongs to the cache filp of size 360
The buggy address is located 196 bytes inside of
 freed 360-byte region [ffff888012c12000, ffff888012c12168)

The buggy address belongs to the physical page:
page: refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x12c12
head: order:1 mapcount:0 entire_mapcount:0 nr_pages_mapped:0 pincount:0
flags: 0x40(head|node=0|zone=0)
page_type: f5(slab)
raw: 0000000000000040 ffff888000ad7640 ffffea0000497a00 dead000000000004
raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000100010 00000001f5000000 0000000000000000
head: 0000000000000040 ffff888000ad7640 ffffea0000497a00 dead000000000004
head: 0000000000000000 0000000000100010 00000001f5000000 0000000000000000
head: 0000000000000001 ffffea00004b0481 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000000
head: 0000000000000002 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000
page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected

Memory state around the buggy address:
 ffff888012c11f80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 ffff888012c12000: fa fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
> ffff888012c12080: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
                                           ^
 ffff888012c12100: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fc fc fc
 ffff888012c12180: fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc fc
---truncated---

## Affected

- `linux_kernel < 5.4.293`
- `linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.237`
- `linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.181`
- `linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.135`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.88`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.24`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.12`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.14, < 6.14.3`
- `debian_linux = 11.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `linux_kernel 6.14.3`