CVE-2025-40138
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: fix to avoid NULL pointer dereference in f2fs_check_quota_consistency() syzbot reported a f2fs bug as below: Oops: gen[ 107.736417][ T5848] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5848 Comm: syz-executor263 Tainted: G W 6.17.0-rc1-syzkaller-00014-g0e39a731820a #0 PREEMPT_{RT,(full)} RIP: 0010:strcmp+0x3c/0xc0 lib/string.c:284 Call Trace: <TASK> f2fs_check_quota_consistency fs/f2fs/super.c:1188 [inline] f2fs_check_opt_consistency+0x1378/0x2c10 fs/f2fs/super.c:1436 __f2fs_remount fs/f2fs/super.c:2653 [inline] f2fs_reconfigure+0x482/0x1770 fs/f2fs/super.c:5297 reconfigure_super+0x224/0x890 fs/super.c:1077 do_remount fs/namespace.c:3314 [inline] path_mount+0xd18/0xfe0 fs/namespace.c:4112 do_mount fs/namespace.c:4133 [inline] __do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4344 [inline] __se_sys_mount+0x317/0x410 fs/namespace.c:4321 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f The direct reason is f2fs_check_quota_consistency() may suffer null-ptr-deref issue in strcmp(). The bug can be reproduced w/ below scripts: mkfs.f2fs -f /dev/vdb mount -t f2fs -o usrquota /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs quotacheck -uc /mnt/f2fs/ umount /mnt/f2fs mount -t f2fs -o usrjquota=aquota.user,jqfmt=vfsold /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs mount -t f2fs -o remount,usrjquota=,jqfmt=vfsold /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs umount /mnt/f2fs So, before old_qname and new_qname comparison, we need to check whether they are all valid pointers, fix it.
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
6.17
and later are affected. Fixed in
6.17.3,
6.18
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2025-40138 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f3458852bbfe79c60f2412b8b04677b96688b6e
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/930a9a6ee8e7ffa20af4bffbfc2bbd21d83bf81c
Frequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2025-40138?
CVE-2025-40138 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.17 onward and has been patched in 6.17.3 and 6.18. CVE-2025-40138 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2025-40138?
Yes — CVE-2025-40138 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.17.3 and 6.18. If you are running Linux kernel 6.17 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
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Is CVE-2025-40138 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2025-40138 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.