Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2 verifier_bug allocation of resources

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function verifier_bug. Such manipulation leads to allocation of resources. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-40143. There is no available exploit. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.2 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function verifier_bug. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a allocation of resources vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-770. The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: dont report verifier bug for missing bpf_scc_visit on speculative path Syzbot generated a program that triggers a verifier_bug() call in maybe_exit_scc(). maybe_exit_scc() assumes that, when called for a state with insn_idx in some SCC, there should be an instance of struct bpf_scc_visit allocated for that SCC. Turns out the assumption does not hold for speculative execution paths. See example in the next patch. maybe_scc_exit() is called from update_branch_counts() for states that reach branch count of zero, meaning that path exploration for a particular path is finished. Path exploration can finish in one of three ways: a. Verification error is found. In this case, update_branch_counts() is called only for non-speculative paths. b. Top level BPF_EXIT is reached. Such instructions are never a part of an SCC, so compute_scc_callchain() in maybe_scc_exit() will return false, and maybe_scc_exit() will return early. c. A checkpoint is reached and matched. Checkpoints are created by is_state_visited(), which calls maybe_enter_scc(), which allocates bpf_scc_visit instances for checkpoints within SCCs. Hence, for non-speculative symbolic execution paths, the assumption still holds: if maybe_scc_exit() is called for a state within an SCC, bpf_scc_visit instance must exist. This patch removes the verifier_bug() call for speculative paths.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-40143 since 04/16/2025. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 298897 (Ubuntu 25.10 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-8029-1)), 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 3861e7c4324aa20a632fb74eb3904114f6afdb57/a3c73d629ea1373af3c0c954d41fd1af555492e3 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 (298897) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2579). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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

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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