Linux Kernel up to 6.6.117/6.12.58/6.17.8 crash __crash_shrink_memory null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.117/6.12.58/6.17.8. Affected by this issue is the function __crash_shrink_memory of the component crash. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2025-68198. There is no exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.117/6.12.58/6.17.8. Affected is the function __crash_shrink_memory of the component crash. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crash: fix crashkernel resource shrink When crashkernel is configured with a high reservation, shrinking its value below the low crashkernel reservation causes two issues: 1. Invalid crashkernel resource objects 2. Kernel crash if crashkernel shrinking is done twice For example, with crashkernel=200M,high, the kernel reserves 200MB of high memory and some default low memory (say 256MB). The reservation appears as: cat /proc/iomem | grep -i crash af000000-beffffff : Crash kernel 433000000-43f7fffff : Crash kernel If crashkernel is then shrunk to 50MB (echo 52428800 > /sys/kernel/kexec_crash_size), /proc/iomem still shows 256MB reserved: af000000-beffffff : Crash kernel Instead, it should show 50MB: af000000-b21fffff : Crash kernel Further shrinking crashkernel to 40MB causes a kernel crash with the following trace (x86): BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000038 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI <snip...> Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die_body.cold+0x19/0x27 ? page_fault_oops+0x15a/0x2f0 ? search_module_extables+0x19/0x60 ? search_bpf_extables+0x5f/0x80 ? exc_page_fault+0x7e/0x180 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30 ? __release_resource+0xd/0xb0 release_resource+0x26/0x40 __crash_shrink_memory+0xe5/0x110 crash_shrink_memory+0x12a/0x190 kexec_crash_size_store+0x41/0x80 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x141/0x1f0 vfs_write+0x294/0x460 ksys_write+0x6d/0xf0 <snip...> This happens because __crash_shrink_memory()/kernel/crash_core.c incorrectly updates the crashk_res resource object even when crashk_low_res should be updated. Fix this by ensuring the correct crashkernel resource object is updated when shrinking crashkernel memory.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-68198 since 12/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 298236 (SUSE SLES16 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2026:20220-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.118, 6.12.59 or 6.17.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f01f9c348d76d40bf104a94449e3ce4057fdefee/f89c5e7077f63e45e8ba5a77b7cf0803130367e6/a2bd247f8c6c5ac3f0ba823a2fffd77bb9cdf618/00fbff75c5acb4755f06f08bd1071879c63940c5 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 (298236) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2868). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.117
• 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
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 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

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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