CVE-2025-40034

  • Published: 2025-10-28T12:15:37.250
  • Last modified: 1761653737

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

PCI/AER: Avoid NULL pointer dereference in aer_ratelimit()

When platform firmware supplies error information to the OS, e.g., via the
ACPI APEI GHES mechanism, it may identify an error source device that
doesn’t advertise an AER Capability and therefore dev->aer_info, which
contains AER stats and ratelimiting data, is NULL.

pci_dev_aer_stats_incr() already checks dev->aer_info for NULL, but
aer_ratelimit() did not, leading to NULL pointer dereferences like this one
from the URL below:

{1}[Hardware Error]: Hardware error from APEI Generic Hardware Error Source: 0
{1}[Hardware Error]: event severity: corrected
{1}[Hardware Error]: device_id: 0000:00:00.0
{1}[Hardware Error]: vendor_id: 0x8086, device_id: 0x2020
{1}[Hardware Error]: aer_cor_status: 0x00001000, aer_cor_mask: 0x00002000
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000264
RIP: 0010:___ratelimit+0xc/0x1b0
pci_print_aer+0x141/0x360
aer_recover_work_func+0xb5/0x130

[8086:2020] is an Intel “Sky Lake-E DMI3 Registers” device that claims to
be a Root Port but does not advertise an AER Capability.

Add a NULL check in aer_ratelimit() to avoid the NULL pointer dereference.
Note that this also prevents ratelimiting these events from GHES.

[bhelgaas: add crash details to commit log]

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How to fix CVE-2025-40034

CVE-2025-40034 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI/AER: Avoid NULL pointer dereference in aer_ratelimit() When platform firmware supplies error information to the OS, e.g., via the ACPI APEI GHES mechanism, it may identify an error source device that doesn’t advertise an AER Capability and therefore dev->aer_info, which contains AER stats and ratelimiting […]

Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public

How to Fix:

1 Identify affected systems

- Check if you're running the affected product

2 Immediate actions

- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access

3 Verification

- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)

4 Long-term prevention

- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations

Exploit Difficulty Assessment

HARD
⏱️ Time to Exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Skills Required: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public Exploits: Rare or not public

Vulnerability Timeline

Oct 28, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Jan 01, 1970
Last Modified

CVE details were updated

Oct 28, 2025
Imported to Database

Added to this CVE tracking system

Detection Rules & IOCs

No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.

No vendor/product data available.