VDB-330231 · CVE-2025-40070 · Nessus 271878

Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2 drivers/base/core.c pps_register_cdev use after free

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
7.6	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.194/6.1.155/6.6.111/6.12.52/6.17.2. Affected by this vulnerability is the function pps_register_cdev of the file drivers/base/core.c. Performing a manipulation results in use after free. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2025-40070. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.194/6.1.155/6.6.111/6.12.52/6.17.2. This affects the function pps_register_cdev of the file drivers/base/core.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pps: fix warning in pps_register_cdev when register device fail Similar to previous commit 2a934fdb01db ("media: v4l2-dev: fix error handling in __video_register_device()"), the release hook should be set before device_register(). Otherwise, when device_register() return error and put_device() try to callback the release function, the below warning may happen. ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 4760 at drivers/base/core.c:2567 device_release+0x1bd/0x240 drivers/base/core.c:2567 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 4760 Comm: syz.4.914 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc3+ #1 NONE RIP: 0010:device_release+0x1bd/0x240 drivers/base/core.c:2567 Call Trace: <TASK> kobject_cleanup+0x136/0x410 lib/kobject.c:689 kobject_release lib/kobject.c:720 [inline] kref_put include/linux/kref.h:65 [inline] kobject_put+0xe9/0x130 lib/kobject.c:737 put_device+0x24/0x30 drivers/base/core.c:3797 pps_register_cdev+0x2da/0x370 drivers/pps/pps.c:402 pps_register_source+0x2f6/0x480 drivers/pps/kapi.c:108 pps_tty_open+0x190/0x310 drivers/pps/clients/pps-ldisc.c:57 tty_ldisc_open+0xa7/0x120 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:432 tty_set_ldisc+0x333/0x780 drivers/tty/tty_ldisc.c:563 tiocsetd drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2429 [inline] tty_ioctl+0x5d1/0x1700 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2728 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:598 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:584 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x194/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:584 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x5f/0x2a0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e </TASK> Before commit c79a39dc8d06 ("pps: Fix a use-after-free"), pps_register_cdev() call device_create() to create pps->dev, which will init dev->release to device_create_release(). Now the comment is outdated, just remove it. Thanks for the reminder from Calvin Owens, 'kfree_pps' should be removed in pps_register_source() to avoid a double free in the failure case.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-40070 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be easy. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 02/15/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 271878 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-40070), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.195, 6.1.156, 6.6.112, 6.12.53, 6.17.3 or 6.18-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 125527db41805693208ee1aacd7f3ffe6a3a489c/4cbd7450a22c5ee4842fc4175ad06c0c82ea53a8/cf71834a0cfc394c72d62fd6dbb470ee13cf8f5e/f01fa3588e0b3cb1540f56d2c6bd99e5b3810234/0f97564a1fb62f34b3b498e2f12caffbe99c004a/b0531cdba5029f897da5156815e3bdafe1e9b88d 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 (271878) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2431). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

Google Container-Optimized OS
Debian Linux
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
SUSE openSUSE
Open Source Linux Kernel
RESF Rocky Linux
Microsoft Azure
Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

Operating System

Vendor

Linux

Name

Kernel

Version

License

open-source

Website

Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 8.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.6

VulDB Base Score: 8.0
VulDB Temp Score: 7.6
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
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💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
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Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Use after free
CWE: CWE-416 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒