Linux Kernel up to 6.17.11/6.18.0 zstd_exit double free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.11/6.18.0. The affected element is the function zstd_exit. This manipulation causes double free. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2025-68262. There is no available exploit. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17.11/6.18.0 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function zstd_exit. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a double free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-415. The product calls free() twice on the same memory address, potentially leading to modification of unexpected memory locations. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: zstd - fix double-free in per-CPU stream cleanup The crypto/zstd module has a double-free bug that occurs when multiple tfms are allocated and freed. The issue happens because zstd_streams (per-CPU contexts) are freed in zstd_exit() during every tfm destruction, rather than being managed at the module level. When multiple tfms exist, each tfm exit attempts to free the same shared per-CPU streams, resulting in a double-free. This leads to a stack trace similar to: BUG: Bad page state in process kworker/u16:1 pfn:106fd93 page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x106fd93 flags: 0x17ffffc0000000(node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) page_type: 0xffffffff() raw: 0017ffffc0000000 dead000000000100 dead000000000122 0000000000000000 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: nonzero entire_mapcount Modules linked in: ... CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 2506 Comm: kworker/u16:1 Kdump: loaded Tainted: G B Hardware name: ... Workqueue: btrfs-delalloc btrfs_work_helper Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x5d/0x80 bad_page+0x71/0xd0 free_unref_page_prepare+0x24e/0x490 free_unref_page+0x60/0x170 crypto_acomp_free_streams+0x5d/0xc0 crypto_acomp_exit_tfm+0x23/0x50 crypto_destroy_tfm+0x60/0xc0 ... Change the lifecycle management of zstd_streams to free the streams only once during module cleanup.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-68262 since 12/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/18/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 302766 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / 25.10 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-8094-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.17.12, 6.18.1 or 6.19-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch dc0f4509b0ed5d82bef78e058db0ac4df04d0695/e983feaa79de1e46c9087fb9f02fedb0e5397ce6/48bc9da3c97c15f1ea24934bcb3b736acd30163d 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 (302766) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2868). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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

• 6.0
• 6.1
• 6.2
• 6.3
• 6.4
• 6.5
• 6.6
• 6.7
• 6.8
• 6.9
• 6.10
• 6.11
• 6.12
• 6.13
• 6.14
• 6.15
• 6.16
• 6.17
• 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
• 6.17.10
• 6.17.11
• 6.18.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion