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Reference page — cumulative record through Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2025-38463MEDIUM
Linux Linux — tcp: Correct signedness in skb remaining space calculation
  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   L   L   L   N  U  N  N  H    5.5   .0016    5.5     —
AFFECTED
  Product  Versions                                    Fixed
  Linux    270a1c3de47e49dd2fc18f48e46b101e48050e78 –  —
  Linux    6.5 –                                       6.6.99
TIMELINE
  Apr 16  Reserved by Linux
  Jul 25  Published (CNA: Linux)
  Jul 30  RESCORED — CVE-2025-38463 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 5.5 (NVD).
CWE-191 · CNA: Linux · CVSS v3.1 · 4 references · NVD status: Modified

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tcp: Correct signedness in skb remaining space calculation Syzkaller reported a bug [1] where sk->sk_forward_alloc can overflow. When we send data, if an skb exists at the tail of the write queue, the kernel will attempt to append the new data to that skb. However, the code that checks for available space in the skb is flawed: ''' copy = size_goal - skb->len ''' The types of the variables involved are: ''' copy: ssize_t (s64 on 64-bit systems) size_goal: int skb->len: unsigned int ''' Due to C's type promotion rules, the signed size_goal is converted to an unsigned int to match skb->len before the subtraction. The result is an unsigned int. When this unsigned int result is then assigned to the s64 copy variable, it is zero-extended, preserving its non-negative value. Consequently, copy is always >= 0. Assume we are sending 2GB of data and size_goal has been adjusted to a value smaller than skb->len. The subtraction will result in copy holding a very large positive integer. In the subsequent logic, this large value is used to update sk->sk_forward_alloc, which can easily cause it to overflow. The syzkaller reproducer uses TCP_REPAIR to reliably create this condition. However, this can also occur in real-world scenarios. The tcp_bound_to_half_wnd() function can also reduce size_goal to a small value. This would cause the subsequent tcp_wmem_schedule() to set sk->sk_forward_alloc to a value close to INT_MAX. Further memory allocation requests would then cause sk_forward_alloc to wrap around and become negative. [1]: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=de6565462ab540f50e47

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
DateEventDetail
April 16, 2025ReservedReserved by Linux
July 25, 2025PublishedPublished (CNA: Linux)
July 30, 2026RESCOREDRESCORED — CVE-2025-38463 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 5.5 (NVD).

Affected

Affected products and packages — 2 rows
VendorProduct / PackageEcosystemVersion introducedFixed
LinuxLinux270a1c3de47e49dd2fc18f48e46b101e48050e78
LinuxLinux6.56.6.99

Weaknesses

CWE-191

References (4)

Related

Authoritative record: CVE-2025-38463 at cve.org

Vendors: linux

Weaknesses: CWE-191

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2025-38463 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.