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Linux Kernel CVE-2025-40054

HIGH
2025-10-28 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
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Severity by source

Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67) PRIMARY
7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
5.8 MEDIUM

Local low-priv access with a tight write/writeback timing race (AV:L/PR:L/AC:H); observed impact is a UAF kernel panic (A:H) with limited, uncertain C/I from freed-memory access.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Primary rating from Vendor (416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67).

CVSS VectorVendor: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Jul 30, 2026 - 07:50 vuln.today
CVE Published
Oct 28, 2025 - 12:15 cve.org
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

f2fs: fix UAF issue in f2fs_merge_page_bio()

As JY reported in bugzilla [1],

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 pc : [0xffffffe51d249484] f2fs_is_cp_guaranteed+0x70/0x98 lr : [0xffffffe51d24adbc] f2fs_merge_page_bio+0x520/0x6d4 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 6790 Comm: kworker/u16:3 Tainted: P B W OE 6.12.30-android16-5-maybe-dirty-4k #1 5f7701c9cbf727d1eebe77c89bbbeb3371e895e5 Tainted: [P]=PROPRIETARY_MODULE, [B]=BAD_PAGE, [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-254:49) Call trace: f2fs_is_cp_guaranteed+0x70/0x98 f2fs_inplace_write_data+0x174/0x2f4 f2fs_do_write_data_page+0x214/0x81c f2fs_write_single_data_page+0x28c/0x764 f2fs_write_data_pages+0x78c/0xce4 do_writepages+0xe8/0x2fc __writeback_single_inode+0x4c/0x4b4 writeback_sb_inodes+0x314/0x540 __writeback_inodes_wb+0xa4/0xf4 wb_writeback+0x160/0x448 wb_workfn+0x2f0/0x5dc process_scheduled_works+0x1c8/0x458 worker_thread+0x334/0x3f0 kthread+0x118/0x1ac ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20

[1] https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220575

The panic was caused by UAF issue w/ below race condition:

kworker

  • writepages
  • f2fs_write_cache_pages
  • f2fs_write_single_data_page
  • f2fs_do_write_data_page
  • f2fs_inplace_write_data
  • f2fs_merge_page_bio
  • add_inu_page

: cache page #1 into bio & cache bio in io->bio_list

  • f2fs_write_single_data_page
  • f2fs_do_write_data_page
  • f2fs_inplace_write_data
  • f2fs_merge_page_bio
  • add_inu_page

: cache page #2 into bio which is linked in io->bio_list write

  • f2fs_write_begin

: write page #1

  • f2fs_folio_wait_writeback
  • f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write
  • f2fs_submit_write_bio

: submit bio which inclues page #1 and #2

software IRQ

  • f2fs_write_end_io
  • fscrypt_free_bounce_page

: freed bounced page which belongs to page #2

  • inc_page_count( , WB_DATA_TYPE(data_folio), false)

: data_folio points to fio->encrypted_page the bounced page can be freed before accessing it in f2fs_is_cp_guarantee()

It can reproduce w/ below testcase: Run below script in shell #1: for ((i=1;i>0;i++)) do xfs_io -f /mnt/f2fs/enc/file \ -c "pwrite 0 32k" -c "fdatasync"

Run below script in shell #2: for ((i=1;i>0;i++)) do xfs_io -f /mnt/f2fs/enc/file \ -c "pwrite 0 32k" -c "fdatasync"

So, in f2fs_merge_page_bio(), let's avoid using fio->encrypted_page after commit page into internal ipu cache.

AnalysisAI

Use-after-free in the Linux kernel's F2FS (Flash-Friendly File System) encryption write path allows a local user to crash the kernel or corrupt memory during concurrent writes to encrypted files. The flaw lives in f2fs_merge_page_bio(), where a bounce/encrypted page can be freed by the write completion path (f2fs_write_end_io) while another thread still dereferences it via fio->encrypted_page in f2fs_is_cp_guaranteed(), producing a NULL/dangling pointer dereference. It is fixed upstream; no public weaponized exploit is identified, though the commit ships a race reproducer, and EPSS risk is low (0.19%).

Technical ContextAI

F2FS is a log-structured filesystem optimized for NAND flash and is the default filesystem for user data on many Android devices (the reported crash is on a 6.12.30 Android kernel). The bug is in the in-place-update (IPU) write path: f2fs_inplace_write_data() calls f2fs_merge_page_bio(), which caches an encrypted bounce page into an internal bio list (io->bio_list) via add_ipu_page. Transparent filesystem encryption (fscrypt) allocates a temporary bounce page for the ciphertext; when the bio is submitted and completes, f2fs_write_end_io() calls fscrypt_free_bounce_page() to release that page. Because the code continued to reference fio->encrypted_page after committing the page into the internal cache, a second thread could touch the already-freed page in f2fs_is_cp_guaranteed(). This is a classic CWE-416 (Use After Free) / CWE-476 (NULL pointer dereference) race, even though the input lists CWE as N/A. The fix stops using fio->encrypted_page after the page is committed to the IPU cache.

Affected ProductsAI

The Linux kernel's F2FS subsystem is affected on builds that use F2FS with fscrypt file-based encryption; the reproducer and crash were reported on a 6.12.30 Android kernel (bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220575). No fixed tag version is stated in the input - the fix is delivered as stable-tree commits 01118321e0c8a5f3ece57d0d377bfc92d83cd210 and edf7e9040fc52c922db947f9c6c36f07377c52ea (git.kernel.org/stable). Exact vulnerable version ranges and the tagged release containing the fix are not provided by NVD CPE data here and should be confirmed against each distribution/Android vendor kernel.

RemediationAI

Upstream fix available (PR/commit); released patched version not independently confirmed - apply the stable-tree commits 01118321e0c8a5f3ece57d0d377bfc92d83cd210 and edf7e9040fc52c922db947f9c6c36f07377c52ea (https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/01118321e0c8a5f3ece57d0d377bfc92d83cd210 and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/edf7e9040fc52c922db947f9c6c36f07377c52ea) or upgrade to a distribution/Android vendor kernel that has backported them. Since no tagged release version is stated in the input, verify the fix landed in your specific kernel branch before declaring closure. As a compensating control where patching lags, restrict local shell/write access to F2FS-encrypted mounts to trusted users (the bug requires local write access to an encrypted file), which reduces exposure but does not help single-user/consumer devices; where feasible and acceptable, avoiding in-place-update writes on encrypted F2FS files narrows the race window, at the cost of write-amplification and performance changes - treat this as a stopgap, not a substitute for the patch.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
openSUSE Tumbleweed Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected

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CVE-2025-40054 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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