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CVE-2025-37989

MEDIUMCVSS 5.5/10EPSS 0.15%

Last modified

CVE-2025-37989 is a medium-severity vulnerability rated 5.5/10 on the CVSS scale. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: phy: leds: fix memory leak A network restart test on a router led to an out-of-memory condition, which was traced to a memory leak in the PHY LED trigger code. The root cause is misuse of the devm API. The registration function (phy_led_triggers_register) is called from phy_attach_direct, not phy_probe, and the unregister function (phy_led_triggers_unregister) is called from phy_detach, not phy_remove. EPSS estimates a 0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: phy: leds: fix memory leak A network restart test on a router led to an out-of-memory condition, which was traced to a memory leak in the PHY LED trigger code. The root cause is misuse of the devm API. The registration function (phy_led_triggers_register) is called from phy_attach_direct, not phy_probe, and the unregister function (phy_led_triggers_unregister) is called from phy_detach, not phy_remove. This means the register and unregister functions can be called multiple times for the same PHY device, but devm-allocated memory is not freed until the driver is unbound. This also prevents kmemleak from detecting the leak, as the devm API internally stores the allocated pointer. Fix this by replacing devm_kzalloc/devm_kcalloc with standard kzalloc/kcalloc, and add the corresponding kfree calls in the unregister path.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
5.5/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Probability
0.15%

5.0th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

VendorProductVersionsUpdate
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 4.10, < 5.4.293—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 5.5, < 5.10.237—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 5.11, < 5.15.181—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 5.16, < 6.1.136—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 6.2, < 6.6.89—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 6.7, < 6.12.26—
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 6.13, < 6.14.5—
LinuxLinux Kernel6.15Rc1
DebianDebian Linux11.0—

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Analyzed

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-37989?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: phy: leds: fix memory leak A network restart test on a router led to an out-of-memory condition, which was traced to a memory leak in the PHY LED trigger code. The root cause is misuse of the devm API. The registration function (phy_led_triggers_register) is called from phy_attach_direct, not phy_probe, and the unregister function (phy_led_triggers_unregister) is called from phy_detach, not phy_remove. This means the register and unregister functions can be called multiple times for the same PHY device, but devm-allocated memory is not freed until the driver is unbound. This also prevents kmemleak from detecting the leak, as the devm API internally stores the allocated pointer. Fix this by replacing devm_kzalloc/devm_kcalloc with standard kzalloc/kcalloc, and add the corresponding kfree calls in the unregister path.
How severe is CVE-2025-37989?
CVE-2025-37989 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10 (MEDIUM severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.15% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2025-37989?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

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Source: NVD / NIST