Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40209)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40209). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.12.58, 6.17.8 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

btrfs: fix memory leak of qgroup_list in btrfs_add_qgroup_relation

When btrfs_add_qgroup_relation() is called with invalid qgroup levels
(src >= dst), the function returns -EINVAL directly without freeing the
preallocated qgroup_list structure passed by the caller. This causes a
memory leak because the caller unconditionally sets the pointer to NULL
after the call, preventing any cleanup.

The issue occurs because the level validation check happens before the
mutex is acquired and before any error handling path that would free
the prealloc pointer. On this early return, the cleanup code at the
'out' label (which includes kfree(prealloc)) is never reached.

In btrfs_ioctl_qgroup_assign(), the code pattern is:

prealloc = kzalloc(sizeof(*prealloc), GFP_KERNEL);
ret = btrfs_add_qgroup_relation(trans, sa->src, sa->dst, prealloc);
prealloc = NULL;  // Always set to NULL regardless of return value
...
kfree(prealloc);  // This becomes kfree(NULL), does nothing

When the level check fails, 'prealloc' is never freed by either the
callee or the caller, resulting in a 64-byte memory leak per failed
operation. This can be triggered repeatedly by an unprivileged user
with access to a writable btrfs mount, potentially exhausting kernel
memory.

Fix this by freeing prealloc before the early return, ensuring prealloc
is always freed on all error paths.

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-2025-40209 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.12.58, 6.17.8 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-40209" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-40209 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.12.58, 6.17.8 — 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 6.12.58, 6.17.8.

🛡️ 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 6.12.58, 6.17.8
```
ステージング環境で 6.12.58, 6.17.8 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":"6.11.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.58"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.17.8"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-40209 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.58-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40209 linux Fixed in: 6.12.63-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40209 linux-hwe-edge