CVE-2025-38709

CVE Details

Release Date:	2025-09-04
Impact:	Moderate	What is this?

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: loop: Avoid updating block size under exclusive owner Syzbot came up with a reproducer where a loop device block size is changed underneath a mounted filesystem. This causes a mismatch between the block device block size and the block size stored in the superblock causing confusion in various places such as fs/buffer.c. The particular issue triggered by syzbot was a warning in __getblk_slow() due to requested buffer size not matching block device block size. Fix the problem by getting exclusive hold of the loop device to change its block size. This fails if somebody (such as filesystem) has already an exclusive ownership of the block device and thus prevents modifying the loop device under some exclusive owner which doesn't expect it.

See more information about CVE-2025-38709 from MITRE CVE dictionary and NIST NVD

NOTE: The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 metrics

Base Score:	6.4
Vector String:	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Version:	3.1
Attack Vector:	Local
Attack Complexity:	High
Privileges Required:	High
User Interaction:	None
Scope:	Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact:	High
Integrity Impact:	High
Availability Impact:	High

Errata information

Platform	Errata	Release Date
Oracle Linux version 10 (kernel-uek)	ELSA-2025-20662	2025-10-14
Oracle Linux version 9 (kernel-uek)	ELSA-2025-20662	2025-10-14