CVE-2025-38160: 
Linux Debian vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-38160 is a vulnerability discovered in the Linux kernel, specifically affecting the Raspberry Pi clock (clk) subsystem. The vulnerability was disclosed on July 3, 2025, and involves a NULL pointer dereference issue in the raspberrypiclkregister() function (NVD Database, CVE Database).

The vulnerability occurs when devmkasprintf() returns NULL during memory allocation failure in the raspberrypiclk_register() function. The function does not properly check for this NULL return value, leading to a potential NULL pointer dereference. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v2.0 score of 5.0 (AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C) indicating local access requirements (Rapid7).

The vulnerability affects multiple Linux distributions and versions, including Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (jammy), 24.04 LTS (noble), and 25.04 (plucky). Various kernel packages including linux-aws, linux-azure, linux-gcp, and linux-nvidia are impacted. Earlier versions such as Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal) and 18.04 LTS (bionic) are not affected (Ubuntu Security).

A fix has been implemented by adding a NULL check after the devmkasprintf() call in the raspberrypiclk_register() function to prevent the NULL pointer dereference (NVD Database).