NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-uek-core package, versions <0:6.12.0-103.40.4.1.el9uek


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Oracle Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.01% (3rd percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-ORACLE9-KERNELUEKCORE-12563021
  • published9 Sept 2025
  • disclosed9 Jul 2025

Introduced: 9 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-38262  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Oracle:9 kernel-uek-core to version 0:6.12.0-103.40.4.1.el9uek or higher.
This issue was patched in ELSA-2025-20551.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-uek-core package and not the kernel-uek-core package as distributed by Oracle. See How to fix? for Oracle:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

tty: serial: uartlite: register uart driver in init

When two instances of uart devices are probing, a concurrency race can occur. If one thread calls uart_register_driver function, which first allocates and assigns memory to 'uart_state' member of uart_driver structure, the other instance can bypass uart driver registration and call ulite_assign. This calls uart_add_one_port, which expects the uart driver to be fully initialized. This leads to a kernel panic due to a null pointer dereference:

[ 8.143581] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000002b8 [ 8.156982] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 8.156984] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 8.156986] PGD 0 P4D 0 ... [ 8.180668] RIP: 0010:mutex_lock+0x19/0x30 [ 8.188624] Call Trace: [ 8.188629] ? __die_body.cold+0x1a/0x1f [ 8.195260] ? page_fault_oops+0x15c/0x290 [ 8.209183] ? __irq_resolve_mapping+0x47/0x80 [ 8.209187] ? exc_page_fault+0x64/0x140 [ 8.209190] ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 [ 8.209196] ? mutex_lock+0x19/0x30 [ 8.223116] uart_add_one_port+0x60/0x440 [ 8.223122] ? proc_tty_register_driver+0x43/0x50 [ 8.223126] ? tty_register_driver+0x1ca/0x1e0 [ 8.246250] ulite_probe+0x357/0x4b0 [uartlite]

To prevent it, move uart driver registration in to init function. This will ensure that uart_driver is always registered when probe function is called.

CVSS Base Scores

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