Linux Kernel up to 6.12.25/6.14.4 ntfs3 is_compressed null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.25/6.14.4. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function is_compressed of the component ntfs3. Executing a manipulation can lead to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2025-37806. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.25/6.14.4. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects the function is_compressed of the component ntfs3. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Keep write operations atomic syzbot reported a NULL pointer dereference in __generic_file_write_iter. [1] Before the write operation is completed, the user executes ioctl[2] to clear the compress flag of the file, which causes the is_compressed() judgment to return 0, further causing the program to enter the wrong process and call the wrong ops ntfs_aops_cmpr, which triggers the null pointer dereference of write_begin. Use inode lock to synchronize ioctl and write to avoid this case. [1] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000086000006 EC = 0x21: IABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x06: level 2 translation fault user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=000000011896d000 [0000000000000000] pgd=0800000118b44403, p4d=0800000118b44403, pud=0800000117517403, pmd=0000000000000000 Internal error: Oops: 0000000086000006 [#1] PREEMPT SMP Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6427 Comm: syz-executor347 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc3-syzkaller-g573067a5a685 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : 0x0 lr : generic_perform_write+0x29c/0x868 mm/filemap.c:4055 sp : ffff80009d4978a0 x29: ffff80009d4979c0 x28: dfff800000000000 x27: ffff80009d497bc8 x26: 0000000000000000 x25: ffff80009d497960 x24: ffff80008ba71c68 x23: 0000000000000000 x22: ffff0000c655dac0 x21: 0000000000001000 x20: 000000000000000c x19: 1ffff00013a92f2c x18: ffff0000e183aa1c x17: 0004060000000014 x16: ffff800083275834 x15: 0000000000000001 x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000001 x12: ffff0000c655dac0 x11: 0000000000ff0100 x10: 0000000000ff0100 x9 : 0000000000000000 x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : ffff80009d497980 x4 : ffff80009d497960 x3 : 0000000000001000 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff0000e183a928 x0 : ffff0000d60b0fc0 Call trace: 0x0 (P) __generic_file_write_iter+0xfc/0x204 mm/filemap.c:4156 ntfs_file_write_iter+0x54c/0x630 fs/ntfs3/file.c:1267 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:586 [inline] vfs_write+0x920/0xcf4 fs/read_write.c:679 ksys_write+0x15c/0x26c fs/read_write.c:731 __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:742 [inline] __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:739 [inline] __arm64_sys_write+0x7c/0x90 fs/read_write.c:739 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x98/0x2b8 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x130/0x23c arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x58 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x54/0x168 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:744 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:762 [2] ioctl$FS_IOC_SETFLAGS(r0, 0x40086602, &(0x7f00000000c0)=0x20)

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-37806 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 240657 (Ubuntu 25.04 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7594-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.26, 6.14.5 or 6.15-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 8db49e89a7f8b48ee59fa9ad32b6ed0879747df8/464139e18f619aa14fb921a61721862f43421c54/285cec318bf5a7a6c8ba999b2b6ec96f9a20590f is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (240657) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0975). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.14.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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