Use-After-Free Vulnerability in Linux Kernel Affecting Function Tracing

CVE-2025-38346

What is CVE-2025-38346?

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel’s ftrace functionality can lead to a use-after-free condition when modules are removed after tracing is disabled. This occurs specifically when the ftrace_disable flag is triggered after encountering an anomaly, preventing proper cleanup of function tracing information. When a module that has been loaded and has its initialization functions traced is subsequently removed, the still-present module list may lead to attempts to read from memory spaces that have already been freed, triggering potential security risks and system instability.

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