Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40178)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40178). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.195, 6.1.157, 6.6.113, 6.12.54, 6.17.4 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

pid: Add a judgment for ns null in pid_nr_ns

__task_pid_nr_ns
ns = task_active_pid_ns(current);
pid_nr_ns(rcu_dereference(*task_pid_ptr(task, type)), ns);
if (pid && ns->level <= pid->level) {

Sometimes null is returned for task_active_pid_ns. Then it will trigger kernel panic in pid_nr_ns.

For example:
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000058
Mem abort info:
ESR = 0x0000000096000007
EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits
SET = 0, FnV = 0
EA = 0, S1PTW = 0
FSC = 0x07: level 3 translation fault
Data abort info:
ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000007, ISS2 = 0x00000000
CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0
GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0
user pgtable: 4k pages, 39-bit VAs, pgdp=00000002175aa000
[0000000000000058] pgd=08000002175ab003, p4d=08000002175ab003, pud=08000002175ab003, pmd=08000002175be003, pte=0000000000000000
pstate: 834000c5 (Nzcv daIF +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
pc : __task_pid_nr_ns+0x74/0xd0
lr : __task_pid_nr_ns+0x24/0xd0
sp : ffffffc08001bd10
x29: ffffffc08001bd10 x28: ffffffd4422b2000 x27: 0000000000000001
x26: ffffffd442821168 x25: ffffffd442821000 x24: 00000f89492eab31
x23: 00000000000000c0 x22: ffffff806f5693c0 x21: ffffff806f5693c0
x20: 0000000000000001 x19: 0000000000000000 x18: 0000000000000000
x17: 00000000529c6ef0 x16: 00000000529c6ef0 x15: 00000000023a1adc
x14: 0000000000…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-40178 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.195, 6.1.157, 6.6.113, 6.12.54, 6.17.4 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-40178" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-40178 (Kernel)
Patched: 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.195, 6.1.157, 6.6.113, 6.12.54, 6.17.4 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.195, 6.1.157, 6.6.113, 6.12.54, 6.17.4.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.195, 6.1.157, 6.6.113, 6.12.54, 6.17.4
```
ステージング環境で 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.195, 6.1.157, 6.6.113, 6.12.54, 6.17.4 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"3.8.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.301"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.246"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.195"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.157"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.113"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.54"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.17.4"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-40178 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.1.158-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40178 linux Fixed in: 5.10.247-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40178 linux