CVE-2025-38549

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

efivarfs: Fix memory leak of efivarfs_fs_info in fs_context error paths

When processing mount options, efivarfs allocates efivarfs_fs_info (sfi) early in fs_context initialization. However, sfi is associated with the superblock and typically freed when the superblock is destroyed. If the fs_context is released (final put) before fill_super is called—such as on error paths or during reconfiguration—the sfi structure would leak, as ownership never transfers to the superblock.

Implement the .free callback in efivarfs_context_ops to ensure any allocated sfi is properly freed if the fs_context is torn down before fill_super, preventing this memory leak.

Weakness

The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Choose a language or tool that provides automatic memory management, or makes manual memory management less error-prone.
• For example, glibc in Linux provides protection against free of invalid pointers.
• When using Xcode to target OS X or iOS, enable automatic reference counting (ARC) [REF-391].
• To help correctly and consistently manage memory when programming in C++, consider using a smart pointer class such as std::auto_ptr (defined by ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 14882:2003), std::shared_ptr and std::unique_ptr (specified by an upcoming revision of the C++ standard, informally referred to as C++ 1x), or equivalent solutions such as Boost.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/64e135f1eaba0bbb0cdee859af3328c68d5b9789
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/816d36973467d1c9c08a48bdffe4675e219a2e84
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e9fabe7036bb8be6071f39dc38605508f5f57b20