CVE-2025-38488smb: client: fix use-after-free in crypt_message when using async crypto

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.

Timeline

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.77% · top 44% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.8.

Affected products

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 8f14a476abba13144df5434871a7225fd29af633 – < 5d047b12f86cc3b9fde1171c02d9bccf4dba0632
  • affected ef51c0d544b1518b35364480317ab6d3468f205d – < 6550b2bef095d0dd2d2c8390d2ea4c3837028833
  • affected bce966530fd5542bbb422cb45ecb775f7a1a6bc3 – < 9a1d3e8d40f151c2d5a5f40c410e6e433f62f438
  • affected 0809fb86ad13b29e1d6d491364fc7ea4fb545995 – < 15a0a5de49507062bc3be4014a403d8cea5533de
  • affected b0abcd65ec545701b8793e12bc27dc98042b151a – < 2a76bc2b24ed889a689fb1c9015307bf16aafb5b
  • affected b0abcd65ec545701b8793e12bc27dc98042b151a – < 8ac90f6824fc44d2e55a82503ddfc95defb19ae0
  • affected b0abcd65ec545701b8793e12bc27dc98042b151a – < b220bed63330c0e1733dc06ea8e75d5b9962b6b6
  • affected 538c26d9bf70c90edc460d18c81008a4e555925a
  • affected 5.10.237 – < 5.10.241
  • affected 5.15.181 – < 5.15.190
  • affected 6.1.128 – < 6.1.147
  • affected 6.6.57 – < 6.6.100
  • affected 6.11.4 – < 6.12

• Linux · Linux

  • affected 6.12
  • unaffected < 6.12
  • unaffected 5.10.241 – ≤ 5.10.*
  • unaffected 5.15.190 – ≤ 5.15.*
  • unaffected 6.1.147 – ≤ 6.1.*
  • unaffected 6.6.100 – ≤ 6.6.*
  • unaffected 6.12.40 – ≤ 6.12.*
  • unaffected 6.15.8 – ≤ 6.15.*
  • unaffected 6.16 – ≤ *

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• EUVD EUVD-2025-22875 (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2025-38488](https://cveledger.app/badge/CVE-2025-38488.svg)](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-38488)

Record last updated 5 Aug 2026, 12:02 UTC.