Linux Kernel up to 6.12.60/6.17.10 huge_memory null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.60/6.17.10. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component huge_memory. Executing a manipulation can lead to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-68293. No exploit exists. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.60/6.17.10. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects some unknown processing of the component huge_memory. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/huge_memory: fix NULL pointer deference when splitting folio Commit c010d47f107f ("mm: thp: split huge page to any lower order pages") introduced an early check on the folio's order via mapping->flags before proceeding with the split work. This check introduced a bug: for shmem folios in the swap cache and truncated folios, the mapping pointer can be NULL. Accessing mapping->flags in this state leads directly to a NULL pointer dereference. This commit fixes the issue by moving the check for mapping != NULL before any attempt to access mapping->flags.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-68293 since 12/16/2025. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly 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 6.12.61 or 6.17.11 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 592db83615a9f0164472ec789c2ed34ad35f732f/d1b83fbacd4397a1d2f8c6b13427a8636ae2b307/cff47b9e39a6abf03dde5f4f156f841b0c54bba0 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

• 6.12.0
• 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
• 6.17.0
• 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

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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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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