Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40256)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40256). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.17.10 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

xfrm: also call xfrm_state_delete_tunnel at destroy time for states that were never added

In commit b441cf3f8c4b ("xfrm: delete x->tunnel as we delete x"), I
missed the case where state creation fails between full
initialization (->init_state has been called) and being inserted on
the lists.

In this situation, ->init_state has been called, so for IPcomp
tunnels, the fallback tunnel has been created and added onto the
lists, but the user state never gets added, because we fail before
that. The user state doesn't go through __xfrm_state_delete, so we
don't call xfrm_state_delete_tunnel for those states, and we end up
leaking the FB tunnel.

There are several codepaths affected by this: the add/update paths, in
both net/key and xfrm, and the migrate code (xfrm_migrate,
xfrm_state_migrate). A "proper" rollback of the init_state work would
probably be doable in the add/update code, but for migrate it gets
more complicated as multiple states may be involved.

At some point, the new (not-inserted) state will be destroyed, so call
xfrm_state_delete_tunnel during xfrm_state_gc_destroy. Most states
will have their fallback tunnel cleaned up during __xfrm_state_delete,
which solves the issue that b441cf3f8c4b (and other patches before it)
aimed at. All states (including FB tunnels) will be removed from the
lists once xfrm_state_fini has called flush_work(&xfrm_state_gc_work).

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-2025-40256 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.17.10 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-40256" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-40256 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.17.10 — 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 6.17.10.

🛡️ 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 6.17.10
```
ステージング環境で 6.17.10 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":"6.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.17.10"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-40256 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.18.35-r1
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40256 linux Fixed in: 6.17.10-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40256 linux-hwe-edge