Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2 hfsplus_uni2asc out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2. The affected element is the function hfsplus_uni2asc. This manipulation causes out-of-bounds. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-40082. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2 and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is the function hfsplus_uni2asc. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: fix slab-out-of-bounds read in hfsplus_uni2asc() BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in hfsplus_uni2asc+0xa71/0xb90 fs/hfsplus/unicode.c:186 Read of size 2 at addr ffff8880289ef218 by task syz.6.248/14290 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 14290 Comm: syz.6.248 Not tainted 6.16.4 #1 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x116/0x1b0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xca/0x5f0 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0xca/0x100 mm/kasan/report.c:595 hfsplus_uni2asc+0xa71/0xb90 fs/hfsplus/unicode.c:186 hfsplus_listxattr+0x5b6/0xbd0 fs/hfsplus/xattr.c:738 vfs_listxattr+0xbe/0x140 fs/xattr.c:493 listxattr+0xee/0x190 fs/xattr.c:924 filename_listxattr fs/xattr.c:958 [inline] path_listxattrat+0x143/0x360 fs/xattr.c:988 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcb/0x4c0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fe0e9fae16d Code: 02 b8 ff ff ff ff c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fe0eae67f98 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000c3 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fe0ea205fa0 RCX: 00007fe0e9fae16d RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000200000000000 RBP: 00007fe0ea0480f0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007fe0ea206038 R14: 00007fe0ea205fa0 R15: 00007fe0eae48000 </TASK> Allocated by task 14290: kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50 mm/kasan/common.c:47 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 mm/kasan/common.c:68 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4333 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0x219/0x540 mm/slub.c:4345 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:909 [inline] hfsplus_find_init+0x95/0x1f0 fs/hfsplus/bfind.c:21 hfsplus_listxattr+0x331/0xbd0 fs/hfsplus/xattr.c:697 vfs_listxattr+0xbe/0x140 fs/xattr.c:493 listxattr+0xee/0x190 fs/xattr.c:924 filename_listxattr fs/xattr.c:958 [inline] path_listxattrat+0x143/0x360 fs/xattr.c:988 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcb/0x4c0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f When hfsplus_uni2asc is called from hfsplus_listxattr, it actually passes in a struct hfsplus_attr_unistr*. The size of the corresponding structure is different from that of hfsplus_unistr, so the previous fix (94458781aee6) is insufficient. The pointer on the unicode buffer is still going beyond the allocated memory. This patch introduces two warpper functions hfsplus_uni2asc_xattr_str and hfsplus_uni2asc_str to process two unicode buffers, struct hfsplus_attr_unistr* and struct hfsplus_unistr* respectively. When ustrlen value is bigger than the allocated memory size, the ustrlen value is limited to an safe size.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-40082 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 271867 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-40082), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.17.3 or 6.18-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 857aefc70d4ae3b9bf1ae67434d27d0f79f80c9e/bea3e1d4467bcf292c8e54f080353d556d355e26 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 (271867) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2431). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality 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

• 6.17.0
• 6.17.1
• 6.17.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

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