# CVE-2025-38344: ACPICA: fix acpi parse and parseext cache leaks Status: published. Published: 2025-07-10. Updated: 2026-11-05. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ACPICA: fix acpi parse and parseext cache leaks ACPICA commit 8829e70e1360c81e7a5a901b5d4f48330e021ea5 I'm Seunghun Han, and I work for National Security Research Institute of South Korea. I have been doing a research on ACPI and found an ACPI cache leak in ACPI early abort cases. Boot log of ACPI cache leak is as follows: [ 0.352414] ACPI: Added _OSI(Module Device) [ 0.353182] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Device) [ 0.353182] ACPI: Added _OSI(3.0 _SCP Extensions) [ 0.353182] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Aggregator Device) [ 0.356028] ACPI: Unable to start the ACPI Interpreter [ 0.356799] ACPI Error: Could not remove SCI handler (20170303/evmisc-281) [ 0.360215] kmem_cache_destroy Acpi-State: Slab cache still has objects [ 0.360648] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W 4.12.0-rc4-next-20170608+ #10 [ 0.361273] Hardware name: innotek gmb_h virtual_box/virtual_box, BIOS virtual_box 12/01/2006 [ 0.361873] Call Trace: [ 0.362243] ? dump_stack+0x5c/0x81 [ 0.362591] ? kmem_cache_destroy+0x1aa/0x1c0 [ 0.362944] ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27 [ 0.363296] ? acpi_os_delete_cache+0xa/0x10 [ 0.363646] ? acpi_ut_delete_caches+0x6d/0x7b [ 0.364000] ? acpi_terminate+0xa/0x14 [ 0.364000] ? acpi_init+0x2af/0x34f [ 0.364000] ? __class_create+0x4c/0x80 [ 0.364000] ? video_setup+0x7f/0x7f [ 0.364000] ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27 [ 0.364000] ? do_one_initcall+0x4e/0x1a0 [ 0.364000] ? kernel_init_freeable+0x189/0x20a [ 0.364000] ? rest_init+0xc0/0xc0 [ 0.364000] ? kernel_init+0xa/0x100 [ 0.364000] ? ret_from_fork+0x25/0x30 I analyzed this memory leak in detail. I found that “Acpi-State” cache and “Acpi-Parse” cache were merged because the size of cache objects was same slab cache size. I finally found “Acpi-Parse” cache and “Acpi-parse_ext” cache were leaked using SLAB_NEVER_MERGE flag in kmem_cache_create() function. Real ACPI cache leak point is as follows: [ 0.360101] ACPI: Added _OSI(Module Device) [ 0.360101] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Device) [ 0.360101] ACPI: Added _OSI(3.0 _SCP Extensions) [ 0.361043] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Aggregator Device) [ 0.364016] ACPI: Unable to start the ACPI Interpreter [ 0.365061] ACPI Error: Could not remove SCI handler (20170303/evmisc-281) [ 0.368174] kmem_cache_destroy Acpi-Parse: Slab cache still has objects [ 0.369332] CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W 4.12.0-rc4-next-20170608+ #8 [ 0.371256] Hardware name: innotek gmb_h virtual_box/virtual_box, BIOS virtual_box 12/01/2006 [ 0.372000] Call Trace: [ 0.372000] ? dump_stack+0x5c/0x81 [ 0.372000] ? kmem_cache_destroy+0x1aa/0x1c0 [ 0.372000] ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27 [ 0.372000] ? acpi_os_delete_cache+0xa/0x10 [ 0.372000] ? acpi_ut_delete_caches+0x56/0x7b [ 0.372000] ? acpi_terminate+0xa/0x14 [ 0.372000] ? acpi_init+0x2af/0x34f [ 0.372000] ? __class_create+0x4c/0x80 [ 0.372000] ? video_setup+0x7f/0x7f [ 0.372000] ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27 [ 0.372000] ? do_one_initcall+0x4e/0x1a0 [ 0.372000] ? kernel_init_freeable+0x189/0x20a [ 0.372000] ? rest_init+0xc0/0xc0 [ 0.372000] ? kernel_init+0xa/0x100 [ 0.372000] ? ret_from_fork+0x25/0x30 [ 0.388039] kmem_cache_destroy Acpi-parse_ext: Slab cache still has objects [ 0.389063] CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W 4.12.0-rc4-next-20170608+ #8 [ 0.390557] Hardware name: innotek gmb_h virtual_box/virtual_box, BIOS virtual_box 12/01/2006 [ 0.392000] Call Trace: [ 0.392000] ? dump_stack+0x5c/0x81 [ 0.392000] ? kmem_cache_destroy+0x1aa/0x1c0 [ 0.392000] ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27 [ 0.392000] ? acpi_os_delete_cache+0xa/0x10 [ 0.392000] ? acpi_ut_delete_caches+0x6d/0x7b [ 0.392000] ? acpi_terminate+0xa/0x14 [ 0.392000] ? acpi_init+0x2af/0x3 ---truncated--- ## Remediation No remediation reported in collected sources ## Affected products and versions - Linux / Linux: ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 1e0e629e88b1f7751ce69bf70cda6d1598d45271 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 41afebc9a0762aafc35d2df88f4e1b798155a940 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 960236150cd3f08e13b397dd5ae4ccf7a2986c00 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 0a119fdaed67566aa3e0b5222dced4d08bbce463 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 1fee4324b5660de080cefc3fc91c371543bdb8f6 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 198c2dab022e5e94a99fff267b669d693bc7bb49 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < 3e0c59180ec83bdec43b3d3482cff23d86d380d0 (affected, git); ≥ 88ac00f5a841dcfc5c682000f4a6add0add8caac; < bed18f0bdcd6737a938264a59d67923688696fc4 (affected, git). Source: CNA: Linux - Linux / Linux: 2.6.14 (affected); ≥ 0; < 2.6.14 (unaffected, semver); ≥ 5.4.295; ≤ 5.4.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 5.10.239; ≤ 5.10.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 5.15.186; ≤ 5.15.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 6.1.142; ≤ 6.1.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 6.6.95; ≤ 6.6.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 6.12.35; ≤ 6.12.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 6.15.4; ≤ 6.15.* (unaffected, semver); ≥ 6.16; ≤ * (unaffected, original_commit_for_fix). Source: CNA: Linux ## Severity and prioritization - CISA KEV: No listing in collected sources - EPSS: 0.20% as of 2026-11-05; percentile 9.35% - SSVC: exploitation none; automatable no; technical impact partial; source ADP: CISA-ADP - Weaknesses: Not reported ## Exploit evidence No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation. ## References - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1e0e629e88b1f7751ce69bf70cda6d1598d45271 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/41afebc9a0762aafc35d2df88f4e1b798155a940 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/960236150cd3f08e13b397dd5ae4ccf7a2986c00 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0a119fdaed67566aa3e0b5222dced4d08bbce463 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1fee4324b5660de080cefc3fc91c371543bdb8f6 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/198c2dab022e5e94a99fff267b669d693bc7bb49 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3e0c59180ec83bdec43b3d3482cff23d86d380d0 (CNA: Linux) - https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bed18f0bdcd6737a938264a59d67923688696fc4 (CNA: Linux) - https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html (ADP: CVE) - https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html (ADP: CVE) ## Provenance - CNA: Linux: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38344; retrieved 2026-11-05; source updated 2026-11-05 - FIRST EPSS: https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2025-38344; retrieved 2026-11-05; source updated Not reported Revision: 3ec0c0fe51046e303f6894a1f138a7c010d22183c3ebf2eb9ebf01c3908a7c30 Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2025-38344 ## Agent and API access Public CVE pages, Markdown, and JSON are free to read without an account or API key. - Public catalog: https://y2.dev/cve/index.json. 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