Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40260)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-40260). 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:

sched_ext: Fix scx_enable() crash on helper kthread creation failure

A crash was observed when the sched_ext selftests runner was
terminated with Ctrl+\ while test 15 was running:

NIP [c00000000028fa58] scx_enable.constprop.0+0x358/0x12b0
LR [c00000000028fa2c] scx_enable.constprop.0+0x32c/0x12b0
Call Trace:
scx_enable.constprop.0+0x32c/0x12b0 (unreliable)
bpf_struct_ops_link_create+0x18c/0x22c
__sys_bpf+0x23f8/0x3044
sys_bpf+0x2c/0x6c
system_call_exception+0x124/0x320
system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec

kthread_run_worker() returns an ERR_PTR() on failure rather than NULL,
but the current code in scx_alloc_and_add_sched() only checks for a NULL
helper. Incase of failure on SIGQUIT, the error is not handled in
scx_alloc_and_add_sched() and scx_enable() ends up dereferencing an
error pointer.

Error handling is fixed in scx_alloc_and_add_sched() to propagate
PTR_ERR() into ret, so that scx_enable() jumps to the existing error
path, avoiding random dereference on failure.

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-2025-40260 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-2025-40260" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-40260 (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-2025-40260 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.18.35-r1
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40260 linux Fixed in: 6.17.10-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40260 linux-hwe-edge