Linux Kernel up to 6.12.61/6.17.11 bfs initialization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.61/6.17.11 and classified as critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component bfs. Executing a manipulation can lead to initialization. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-68266. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.61/6.17.11 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects an unknown code of the component bfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a initialization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-665. The product does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bfs: Reconstruct file type when loading from disk syzbot is reporting that S_IFMT bits of inode->i_mode can become bogus when the S_IFMT bits of the 32bits "mode" field loaded from disk are corrupted or when the 32bits "attributes" field loaded from disk are corrupted. A documentation says that BFS uses only lower 9 bits of the "mode" field. But I can't find an explicit explanation that the unused upper 23 bits (especially, the S_IFMT bits) are initialized with 0. Therefore, ignore the S_IFMT bits of the "mode" field loaded from disk. Also, verify that the value of the "attributes" field loaded from disk is either BFS_VREG or BFS_VDIR (because BFS supports only regular files and the root directory).

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-68266 since 12/16/2025. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 02/22/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 298404 (Debian dsa-6127 : affs-modules-6.1.0-37-4kc-malta-di - security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.62 or 6.17.12 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 77899444d46162aeb65f229590c26ba266864223/a8cb796e7e2cb7971311ba236922f5e7e1be77e6/34ab4c75588c07cca12884f2bf6b0347c7a13872 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 (298404), EUVD (EUVD-2025-203747) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2868). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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

• 6.12.0
• 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
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 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

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Exploitinginfo

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Entryinfo

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

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