Linux Kernel up to 6.16.10/6.17.0 media memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.16.10/6.17.0. This vulnerability affects unknown code of the component media. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-40017. No exploit exists. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.16.10/6.17.0. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component media. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: media: iris: Fix memory leak by freeing untracked persist buffer One internal buffer which is allocated only once per session was not being freed during session close because it was not being tracked as part of internal buffer list which resulted in a memory leak. Add the necessary logic to explicitly free the untracked internal buffer during session close to ensure all allocated memory is released properly.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-40017 since 04/16/2025. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 271671 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-40017), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.16.11, 6.17.1 or 6.18-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c9e024e907cafafd6b094f69a0d0f5d18fd28876/ec2f87ad035e8d1ad67567542842f1f23a4dbde2 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 (271671) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2350). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.0
• 6.1
• 6.2
• 6.3
• 6.4
• 6.5
• 6.6
• 6.7
• 6.8
• 6.9
• 6.10
• 6.11
• 6.12
• 6.13
• 6.14
• 6.15
• 6.16
• 6.16.0
• 6.16.1
• 6.16.2
• 6.16.3
• 6.16.4
• 6.16.5
• 6.16.6
• 6.16.7
• 6.16.8
• 6.16.9
• 6.16.10
• 6.17.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion