Linux Kernel up to 6.12.55/6.17.5 will null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.55/6.17.5. It has been declared as critical. This affects the function will. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-40239. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.55/6.17.5. Affected by this issue is the function will. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: phy: micrel: always set shared->phydev for LAN8814 Currently, during the LAN8814 PTP probe shared->phydev is only set if PTP clock gets actually set, otherwise the function will return before setting it. This is an issue as shared->phydev is unconditionally being used when IRQ is being handled, especially in lan8814_gpio_process_cap and since it was not set it will cause a NULL pointer exception and crash the kernel. So, simply always set shared->phydev to avoid the NULL pointer exception.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-40239 since 04/16/2025. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 277589 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-40239), 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 da1ef8e9eb5d4a12bec32d11636e521e7d529b9e/b093b06826b836c2824858669db080c190c04715/399d10934740ae8cdaa4e3245f7c5f6c332da844 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 (277589) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2747). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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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CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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