CVE-2025-39964 — Kernel
HIGHCVE-2025-39964 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-362 vulnerability in Kernel. A fix is available for Kernel — see the affected versions and patch details below.
crypto: af_alg - Disallow concurrent writes in af_alg_sendmsg
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-39964.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2025-39964 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 374,847 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
KernelReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Linux packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
crypto: af_alg - Disallow concurrent writes in af_alg_sendmsg
Issuing two writes to the same af_alg socket is bogus as the data will be interleaved in an unpredictable fashion. Furthermore, concurrent writes may create inconsistencies in the internal socket state.
Disallow this by adding a new ctx->write field that indiciates exclusive ownership for writing.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐧Linux | Kernel | ≥ 2.6.38&&< 5.10.245 | 5.10.245 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Kernel, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update Kernel to 5.10.245 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-39964 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2025-39964 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-39964. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-39964 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-39964 across Linux dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.