Linux Kernel up to 6.12.55/6.17.5 atomic.h btrfs_check_leaked_roots null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.55/6.17.5. Affected by this vulnerability is the function btrfs_check_leaked_roots in the library arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-40235. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.55/6.17.5. Affected by this vulnerability is the function btrfs_check_leaked_roots in the library arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h. 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. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: directly free partially initialized fs_info in btrfs_check_leaked_roots() If fs_info->super_copy or fs_info->super_for_commit allocated failed in btrfs_get_tree_subvol(), then no need to call btrfs_free_fs_info(). Otherwise btrfs_check_leaked_roots() would access NULL pointer because fs_info->allocated_roots had not been initialised. syzkaller reported the following information: ------------[ cut here ]------------ BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: fffffffffffffbb0 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 64c9067 P4D 64c9067 PUD 64cb067 PMD 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1402 Comm: syz.1.35 Not tainted 6.15.8 #4 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), (...) RIP: 0010:arch_atomic_read arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h:23 [inline] RIP: 0010:raw_atomic_read include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:457 [inline] RIP: 0010:atomic_read include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:33 [inline] RIP: 0010:refcount_read include/linux/refcount.h:170 [inline] RIP: 0010:btrfs_check_leaked_roots+0x18f/0x2c0 fs/btrfs/disk-io.c:1230 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> btrfs_free_fs_info+0x310/0x410 fs/btrfs/disk-io.c:1280 btrfs_get_tree_subvol+0x592/0x6b0 fs/btrfs/super.c:2029 btrfs_get_tree+0x63/0x80 fs/btrfs/super.c:2097 vfs_get_tree+0x98/0x320 fs/super.c:1759 do_new_mount+0x357/0x660 fs/namespace.c:3899 path_mount+0x716/0x19c0 fs/namespace.c:4226 do_mount fs/namespace.c:4239 [inline] __do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4450 [inline] __se_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4427 [inline] __x64_sys_mount+0x28c/0x310 fs/namespace.c:4427 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x92/0x180 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f032eaffa8d [...]

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-40235 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 277657 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-40235), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.56 or 6.17.6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b1c2b4e6ffd307720ab6ce42f6749b0c02ba0a73/0c2b2d4d053e9840e6da6ed581befa20309f281a/17679ac6df6c4830ba711835aa8cf961be36cfa1 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 (277657) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2747). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Microsoft Azure Linux

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
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.17.0
• 6.17.1
• 6.17.2
• 6.17.3
• 6.17.4
• 6.17.5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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Entryinfo

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