CVE-2025-38241

MEDIUMNVD 5.55.5—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 5.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2025-07-09. NVD baseline CVSS 5.5; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 3 sources updated this week
5.5
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: 5.5Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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

mm/shmem, swap: fix softlockup with mTHP swapin

Following softlockup can be easily reproduced on my test machine with:

echo always > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/hugepages-64kB/enabled swapon /dev/zram0 # zram0 is a 48G swap device mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/test echo 1G > /sys/fs/cgroup/test/memory.max echo $BASHPID > /sys/fs/cgroup/test/cgroup.procs while true; do dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/test.img bs=1M count=5120 cat /tmp/test.img > /dev/null rm /tmp/test.img done

Then after a while: watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 763s! [cat:5787] Modules linked in: zram virtiofs CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5787 Comm: cat Kdump: loaded Tainted: G L 6.15.0.orig-gf3021d9246bc-dirty #118 PREEMPT(voluntary)· Tainted: [L]=SOFTLOCKUP Hardware name: Red Hat KVM/RHEL-AV, BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 RIP: 0010:mpol_shared_policy_lookup+0xd/0x70 Code: e9 b8 b4 ff ff 31 c0 c3 cc cc cc cc 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 66 0f 1f 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 41 54 55 53 <48> 8b 1f 48 85 db 74 41 4c 8d 67 08 48 89 fb 48 89 f5 4c 89 e7 e8 RSP: 0018:ffffc90002b1fc28 EFLAGS: 00000202 RAX: 00000000001c20ca RBX: 0000000000724e1e RCX: 0000000000000001 RDX: ffff888118e214c8 RSI: 0000000000057d42 RDI: ffff888118e21518 RBP: 000000000002bec8 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000bf4 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000001 R13: 00000000001c20ca R14: 00000000001c20ca R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 00007f03f995c740(0000) GS:ffff88a07ad9a000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f03f98f1000 CR3: 0000000144626004 CR4: 0000000000770eb0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: shmem_alloc_folio+0x31/0xc0 shmem_swapin_folio+0x309/0xcf0 ? filemap_get_entry+0x117/0x1e0 ? xas_load+0xd/0xb0 ? filemap_get_entry+0x101/0x1e0 shmem_get_folio_gfp+0x2ed/0x5b0 shmem_file_read_iter+0x7f/0x2e0 vfs_read+0x252/0x330 ksys_read+0x68/0xf0 do_syscall_64+0x4c/0x1c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f03f9a46991 Code: 00 48 8b 15 81 14 10 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff eb bd e8 20 ad 01 00 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d 35 97 10 00 00 74 13 31 c0 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 4f c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec RSP: 002b:00007fff3c52bd28 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000000 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000040000 RCX: 00007f03f9a46991 RDX: 0000000000040000 RSI: 00007f03f98ba000 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007fff3c52bd50 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007f03f9b9a380 R10: 0000000000000022 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000040000 R13: 00007f03f98ba000 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 0000000000000000

The reason is simple, readahead brought some order 0 folio in swap cache, and the swapin mTHP folio being allocated is in conflict with it, so swapcache_prepare fails and causes shmem_swap_alloc_folio to return -EEXIST, and shmem simply retries again and again causing this loop.

Fix it by applying a similar fix for anon mTHP swapin.

The performance change is very slight, time of swapin 10g zero folios with shmem (test for 12 times): Before: 2.47s After: 2.48s

[[email protected]: add comment]

CVSS v3
5.5
EG Score
5.5(medium)
EG Risk
29(Track)
EG Risk 29/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity55% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS
0.7%
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 9, 2025

Last Modified

November 19, 2025

References (2)

Patch Availability(7)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulinux-tools-realtime-hwe-24.04-edge (6.14.0-1014.14~24.04.1) @ noble2026-05-30ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-azure-6.14 (6.14.0-1014.14) @ plucky2026-05-30ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-aws-edge (6.14.0-1015.15~24.04.1) @ noble2026-05-30ubuntu
ubuntulinux-virtual-hwe-24.04-edge (6.14.0-34.34) @ plucky2026-05-30ubuntu
ubuntulinux-tools-gcp-edge (6.14.0-1018.19~24.04.1) @ noble2026-05-30ubuntu
ubuntulinux-virtual-hwe-24.04-edge (6.14.0-34.34~24.04.1) @ noble2026-05-30ubuntu
linuxKernel @ 6.15.5—osv

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(6)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 38× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-24 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-24 01:11 UTCOSV refresh
  3. 2026-07-23 02:54 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-22 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
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  6. 2026-07-21 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
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  17. 2026-07-09 19:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-09 19:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-06 19:34 UTCOSV refresh
  20. 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-06 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-05 02:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-04 06:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-01 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-07-01 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-30 23:22 UTCEPSS rescore
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  4. 2026-06-29 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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  6. 2026-06-28 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
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  8. 2026-06-28 04:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-28 04:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-27 03:08 UTCEPSS rescore
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  12. 2026-06-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
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  14. 2026-06-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
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  16. 2026-06-23 21:32 UTCEPSS rescore
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  18. 2026-06-21 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-21 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-18 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-18 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-18 07:43 UTCOSV refresh
  23. 2026-06-17 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-14 23:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-13 23:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-12 23:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-11 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-10 22:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-10 13:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-08 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-07 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
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  35. 2026-06-05 22:46 UTCEPSS rescore
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  37. 2026-06-05 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
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  39. 2026-06-04 13:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-04 13:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-02 20:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-05-31 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-31 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-05-30 02:13 UTCEG score recompute
  48. 2026-05-30 02:13 UTCVendor advisory
  49. 2026-05-30 02:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  50. 2026-05-29 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2025-38241?
CVE-2025-38241 is a medium vulnerability published on July 9, 2025. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/shmem, swap: fix softlockup with mTHP swapin Following softlockup can be easily reproduced on my test machine with: echo always > /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/hugepages-64kB/enabled swapon /dev/zram0 # zram0 is a 48G swap…
When was CVE-2025-38241 disclosed?
CVE-2025-38241 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 9, 2025, with the most recent update on November 19, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2025-38241 actively exploited?
CVE-2025-38241 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.7% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-38241?
CVE-2025-38241 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2025-38241?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2025-38241, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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