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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

Moderate severity Unreviewed Published Sep 5, 2025 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Jan 8, 2026

Package

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Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

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

comedi: Fix use of uninitialized memory in do_insn_ioctl() and do_insnlist_ioctl()

syzbot reports a KMSAN kernel-infoleak in do_insn_ioctl(). A kernel
buffer is allocated to hold insn->n samples (each of which is an
unsigned int). For some instruction types, insn->n samples are
copied back to user-space, unless an error code is being returned. The
problem is that not all the instruction handlers that need to return
data to userspace fill in the whole insn->n samples, so that there is
an information leak. There is a similar syzbot report for
do_insnlist_ioctl(), although it does not have a reproducer for it at
the time of writing.

One culprit is insn_rw_emulate_bits() which is used as the handler for
INSN_READ or INSN_WRITE instructions for subdevices that do not have
a specific handler for that instruction, but do have an INSN_BITS
handler. For INSN_READ it only fills in at most 1 sample, so if
insn->n is greater than 1, the remaining insn->n - 1 samples copied
to userspace will be uninitialized kernel data.

Another culprit is vm80xx_ai_insn_read() in the "vm80xx" driver. It
never returns an error, even if it fails to fill the buffer.

Fix it in do_insn_ioctl() and do_insnlist_ioctl() by making sure
that uninitialized parts of the allocated buffer are zeroed before
handling each instruction.

Thanks to Arnaud Lecomte for their fix to do_insn_ioctl(). That fix
replaced the call to kmalloc_array() with kcalloc(), but it is not
always necessary to clear the whole buffer.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Sep 5, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 5, 2025
Last updated Jan 8, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(4th percentile)

Weaknesses

Use of Uninitialized Resource

The product uses or accesses a resource that has not been initialized. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-39684

GHSA ID

GHSA-j349-5p3c-r8v4

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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