Detections
Analytics

Azure Linux 3.0 Security Update: kernel (CVE-2025-38066)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 296095

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Synopsis

The remote Azure Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The version of kernel installed on the remote Azure Linux 3.0 host is prior to tested version. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the CVE-2025-38066 advisory.

 - In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm cache: prevent BUG_ON by blocking retries on failed device resumes A cache device failing to resume due to mapping errors should not be retried, as the failure leaves a partially initialized policy object. Repeating the resume operation risks triggering BUG_ON when reloading cache mappings into the incomplete policy object. Reproduce steps: 1.
 create a cache metadata consisting of 512 or more cache blocks, with some mappings stored in the first array block of the mapping array. Here we use cache_restore v1.0 to build the metadata. cat <<EOF >> cmeta.xml <superblock uuid= block_size=128 nr_cache_blocks=512 \ policy=smq hint_width=4> <mappings> <mapping cache_block=0 origin_block=0 dirty=false/> </mappings> </superblock> EOF dmsetup create cmeta --table 0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0 cache_restore -i cmeta.xml -o /dev/mapper/cmeta
 --metadata-version=2 dmsetup remove cmeta 2. wipe the second array block of the mapping array to simulate data degradations. mapping_root=$(dd if=/dev/sdc bs=1c count=8 skip=192 \ 2>/dev/null | hexdump -e '1/8 %u\n') ablock=$(dd if=/dev/sdc bs=1c count=8 skip=$((4096*mapping_root+2056)) \ 2>/dev/null | hexdump -e '1/8 %u\n') dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc bs=4k count=1 seek=$ablock 3. try bringing up the cache device.
 The resume is expected to fail due to the broken array block. dmsetup create cmeta --table 0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0 dmsetup create cdata --table 0 65536 linear /dev/sdc 8192 dmsetup create corig --table 0 524288 linear /dev/sdc 262144 dmsetup create cache --notable dmsetup load cache --table 0 524288 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \ /dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 writethrough smq 0 dmsetup resume cache 4. try resuming the cache again. An unexpected BUG_ON is triggered while loading cache mappings.
 dmsetup resume cache Kernel logs: (snip) ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at drivers/md/dm- cache-policy-smq.c:752! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 332 Comm: dmsetup Not tainted 6.13.4 #3 RIP: 0010:smq_load_mapping+0x3e5/0x570 Fix by disallowing resume operations for devices that failed the initial attempt. (CVE-2025-38066)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38066

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 296095

File Name: azure_linux_CVE-2025-38066.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Published: 1/22/2026

Updated: 1/22/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.6

Temporal Score: 3.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2025-38066

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-drivers-gpu, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:python3-perf, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-docs, x-cpe:/o:microsoft:azure_linux, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-drivers-sound, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:bpftool, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-drivers-intree-amdgpu, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-drivers-accessibility, p-cpe:/a:microsoft:azure_linux:kernel-tools

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AzureLinux/release, Host/AzureLinux/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 8/12/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/12/2025

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2025-38066