CVE-2025-38708
- Published: 2025-09-04T16:15:39.847
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
drbd: add missing kref_get in handle_write_conflicts
With `two-primaries` enabled, DRBD tries to detect “concurrent” writes
and handle write conflicts, so that even if you write to the same sector
simultaneously on both nodes, they end up with the identical data once
the writes are completed.
In handling “superseeded” writes, we forgot a kref_get,
resulting in a premature drbd_destroy_device and use after free,
and further to kernel crashes with symptoms.
Relevance: No one should use DRBD as a random data generator, and apparently
all users of “two-primaries” handle concurrent writes correctly on layer up.
That is cluster file systems use some distributed lock manager,
and live migration in virtualization environments stops writes on one node
before starting writes on the other node.
Which means that other than for “test cases”,
this code path is never taken in real life.
FYI, in DRBD 9, things are handled differently nowadays. We still detect
“write conflicts”, but no longer try to be smart about them.
We decided to disconnect hard instead: upper layers must not submit concurrent
writes. If they do, that’s their fault.
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How to fix CVE-2025-38708
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drbd: add missing kref_get in handle_write_conflicts With `two-primaries` enabled, DRBD tries to detect “concurrent” writes and handle write conflicts, so that even if you write to the same sector simultaneously on both nodes, they end up with the identical data once the writes are completed. […]
Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public
How to Fix:
- Check if you're running the affected product
- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access
- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)
- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations
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