# CVE-2025-38345: ACPICA: fix acpi operand cache leak in dswstate.c

Status: published. Published: 2025-07-10. Updated: 2026-11-05.

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

ACPICA: fix acpi operand cache leak in dswstate.c

ACPICA commit 987a3b5cf7175916e2a4b6ea5b8e70f830dfe732

I found an ACPI cache leak in ACPI early termination and boot continuing case.

When early termination occurs due to malicious ACPI table, Linux kernel
terminates ACPI function and continues to boot process. While kernel terminates
ACPI function, kmem_cache_destroy() reports Acpi-Operand cache leak.

Boot log of ACPI operand cache leak is as follows:
>[    0.585957] ACPI: Added _OSI(Module Device)
>[    0.587218] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Device)
>[    0.588530] ACPI: Added _OSI(3.0 _SCP Extensions)
>[    0.589790] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Aggregator Device)
>[    0.591534] ACPI Error: Illegal I/O port address/length above 64K: C806E00000004002/0x2 (20170303/hwvalid-155)
>[    0.594351] ACPI Exception: AE_LIMIT, Unable to initialize fixed events (20170303/evevent-88)
>[    0.597858] ACPI: Unable to start the ACPI Interpreter
>[    0.599162] ACPI Error: Could not remove SCI handler (20170303/evmisc-281)
>[    0.601836] kmem_cache_destroy Acpi-Operand: Slab cache still has objects
>[    0.603556] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 4.12.0-rc5 #26
>[    0.605159] Hardware name: innotek gmb_h virtual_box/virtual_box, BIOS virtual_box 12/01/2006
>[    0.609177] Call Trace:
>[    0.610063]  ? dump_stack+0x5c/0x81
>[    0.611118]  ? kmem_cache_destroy+0x1aa/0x1c0
>[    0.612632]  ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27
>[    0.613906]  ? acpi_os_delete_cache+0xa/0x10
>[    0.617986]  ? acpi_ut_delete_caches+0x3f/0x7b
>[    0.619293]  ? acpi_terminate+0xa/0x14
>[    0.620394]  ? acpi_init+0x2af/0x34f
>[    0.621616]  ? __class_create+0x4c/0x80
>[    0.623412]  ? video_setup+0x7f/0x7f
>[    0.624585]  ? acpi_sleep_proc_init+0x27/0x27
>[    0.625861]  ? do_one_initcall+0x4e/0x1a0
>[    0.627513]  ? kernel_init_freeable+0x19e/0x21f
>[    0.628972]  ? rest_init+0x80/0x80
>[    0.630043]  ? kernel_init+0xa/0x100
>[    0.631084]  ? ret_from_fork+0x25/0x30
>[    0.633343] vgaarb: loaded
>[    0.635036] EDAC MC: Ver: 3.0.0
>[    0.638601] PCI: Probing PCI hardware
>[    0.639833] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
>[    0.641031] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0000-0xffff]
> ... Continue to boot and log is omitted ...

I analyzed this memory leak in detail and found acpi_ds_obj_stack_pop_and_
delete() function miscalculated the top of the stack. acpi_ds_obj_stack_push()
function uses walk_state->operand_index for start position of the top, but
acpi_ds_obj_stack_pop_and_delete() function considers index 0 for it.
Therefore, this causes acpi operand memory leak.

This cache leak causes a security threat because an old kernel (<= 4.9) shows
memory locations of kernel functions in stack dump. Some malicious users
could use this information to neutralize kernel ASLR.

I made a patch to fix ACPI operand cache leak.

## Remediation

No remediation reported in collected sources

## Affected products and versions

- Linux / Linux: ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 4fa430a8bca708c7776f6b9d001257f48b19a5b7 (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 1c0d9115a001979cb446ba5e8331dd1d29a10bbf (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 5a68893b594ee6ce0efce5f74c07e64e9dd0c2c4 (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 64c4bcf0308dd1d752ef31d560040b8725e29984 (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 755a8006b76792922ff7b1c9674d8897a476b5d7 (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 76d37168155880f2b04a0aad92ceb0f9d799950e (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < e0783910ca4368b01466bc8dcdcc13c3e0b7db53 (affected, git); ≥ 773069d48030e670cf2032a13ddf16a2e0034df3; < 156fd20a41e776bbf334bd5e45c4f78dfc90ce1c (affected, git). Source: CNA: Linux
- Linux / Linux: 2.6.26 (affected); ≥ 0; < 2.6.26 (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 9.89%

- 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/4fa430a8bca708c7776f6b9d001257f48b19a5b7 (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1c0d9115a001979cb446ba5e8331dd1d29a10bbf (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5a68893b594ee6ce0efce5f74c07e64e9dd0c2c4 (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/64c4bcf0308dd1d752ef31d560040b8725e29984 (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/755a8006b76792922ff7b1c9674d8897a476b5d7 (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/76d37168155880f2b04a0aad92ceb0f9d799950e (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e0783910ca4368b01466bc8dcdcc13c3e0b7db53 (CNA: Linux)

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/156fd20a41e776bbf334bd5e45c4f78dfc90ce1c (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-2025-38345; retrieved 2026-11-05; source updated 2026-11-05

- FIRST EPSS: https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2025-38345; retrieved 2026-11-05; source updated Not reported

Revision: 382ea70391540073ce64eb19a2d23c6e909efd1adead5da1220de05062dc7dfb

Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2025-38345

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