Linux Kernel up to 6.17.9 vfat sb_min_blocksize return value

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.9. This impacts the function sb_min_blocksize of the component vfat. The manipulation results in return value. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2025-40265. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.9. Affected is the function sb_min_blocksize of the component vfat. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a return value vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-252. The product does not check the return value from a method or function, which can prevent it from detecting unexpected states and conditions. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vfat: fix missing sb_min_blocksize() return value checks When emulating an nvme device on qemu with both logical_block_size and physical_block_size set to 8 KiB, but without format, a kernel panic was triggered during the early boot stage while attempting to mount a vfat filesystem. [95553.682035] EXT4-fs (nvme0n1): unable to set blocksize [95553.684326] EXT4-fs (nvme0n1): unable to set blocksize [95553.686501] EXT4-fs (nvme0n1): unable to set blocksize [95553.696448] ISOFS: unsupported/invalid hardware sector size 8192 [95553.697117] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [95553.697567] kernel BUG at fs/buffer.c:1582! [95553.697984] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [95553.698602] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 7212 Comm: mount Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.18.0-rc2+ #38 PREEMPT(voluntary) [95553.699511] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [95553.700534] RIP: 0010:folio_alloc_buffers+0x1bb/0x1c0 [95553.701018] Code: 48 8b 15 e8 93 18 02 65 48 89 35 e0 93 18 02 48 83 c4 10 5b 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f 5d 31 d2 31 c9 31 f6 31 ff c3 cc cc cc cc <0f> 0b 90 66 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f [95553.702648] RSP: 0018:ffffd1b0c676f990 EFLAGS: 00010246 [95553.703132] RAX: ffff8cfc4176d820 RBX: 0000000000508c48 RCX: 0000000000000001 [95553.703805] RDX: 0000000000002000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000 [95553.704481] RBP: ffffd1b0c676f9c8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [95553.705148] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000001 [95553.705816] R13: 0000000000002000 R14: fffff8bc8257e800 R15: 0000000000000000 [95553.706483] FS: 000072ee77315840(0000) GS:ffff8cfdd2c8d000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [95553.707248] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [95553.707782] CR2: 00007d8f2a9e5a20 CR3: 0000000039d0c006 CR4: 0000000000772ef0 [95553.708439] PKRU: 55555554 [95553.708734] Call Trace: [95553.709015] <TASK> [95553.709266] __getblk_slow+0xd2/0x230 [95553.709641] ? find_get_block_common+0x8b/0x530 [95553.710084] bdev_getblk+0x77/0xa0 [95553.710449] __bread_gfp+0x22/0x140 [95553.710810] fat_fill_super+0x23a/0xfc0 [95553.711216] ? __pfx_setup+0x10/0x10 [95553.711580] ? __pfx_vfat_fill_super+0x10/0x10 [95553.712014] vfat_fill_super+0x15/0x30 [95553.712401] get_tree_bdev_flags+0x141/0x1e0 [95553.712817] get_tree_bdev+0x10/0x20 [95553.713177] vfat_get_tree+0x15/0x20 [95553.713550] vfs_get_tree+0x2a/0x100 [95553.713910] vfs_cmd_create+0x62/0xf0 [95553.714273] __do_sys_fsconfig+0x4e7/0x660 [95553.714669] __x64_sys_fsconfig+0x20/0x40 [95553.715062] x64_sys_call+0x21ee/0x26a0 [95553.715453] do_syscall_64+0x80/0x670 [95553.715816] ? __fs_parse+0x65/0x1e0 [95553.716172] ? fat_parse_param+0x103/0x4b0 [95553.716587] ? vfs_parse_fs_param_source+0x21/0xa0 [95553.717034] ? __do_sys_fsconfig+0x3d9/0x660 [95553.717548] ? __x64_sys_fsconfig+0x20/0x40 [95553.717957] ? x64_sys_call+0x21ee/0x26a0 [95553.718360] ? do_syscall_64+0xb8/0x670 [95553.718734] ? __x64_sys_fsconfig+0x20/0x40 [95553.719141] ? x64_sys_call+0x21ee/0x26a0 [95553.719545] ? do_syscall_64+0xb8/0x670 [95553.719922] ? x64_sys_call+0x1405/0x26a0 [95553.720317] ? do_syscall_64+0xb8/0x670 [95553.720702] ? __x64_sys_close+0x3e/0x90 [95553.721080] ? x64_sys_call+0x1b5e/0x26a0 [95553.721478] ? do_syscall_64+0xb8/0x670 [95553.721841] ? irqentry_exit+0x43/0x50 [95553.722211] ? exc_page_fault+0x90/0x1b0 [95553.722681] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [95553.723166] RIP: 0033:0x72ee774f3afe [95553.723562] Code: 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 0a 33 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 af 01 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d da 32 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 [95553.725188] RSP: 002b:00007ffe97148978 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000001af [95553.725892] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-40265 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 03/04/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 277514 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-40265), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.17.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ee767b99b0045be286cceb8265bd4c9831be671e/63b5aa01da0f38cdbd97d021477258e511631497 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 (277514), EUVD (EUVD-2025-201192) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2747). Once again VulDB remains the best 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

• 6.17.0
• 6.17.1
• 6.17.2
• 6.17.3
• 6.17.4
• 6.17.5
• 6.17.6
• 6.17.7
• 6.17.8
• 6.17.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

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