CVE-2025-40052

  • Published: 2025-10-28T12:15:39.383
  • Last modified: 1761653739

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

smb: client: fix crypto buffers in non-linear memory

The crypto API, through the scatterlist API, expects input buffers to be
in linear memory. We handle this with the cifs_sg_set_buf() helper
that converts vmalloc’d memory to their corresponding pages.

However, when we allocate our aead_request buffer (@creq in
smb2ops.c::crypt_message()), we do so with kvzalloc(), which possibly
puts aead_request->__ctx in vmalloc area.

AEAD algorithm then uses ->__ctx for its private/internal data and
operations, and uses sg_set_buf() for such data on a few places.

This works fine as long as @creq falls into kmalloc zone (small
requests) or vmalloc’d memory is still within linear range.

Tasks’ stacks are vmalloc’d by default (CONFIG_VMAP_STACK=y), so too
many tasks will increment the base stacks’ addresses to a point where
virt_addr_valid(buf) will fail (BUG() in sg_set_buf()) when that
happens.

In practice: too many parallel reads and writes on an encrypted mount
will trigger this bug.

To fix this, always alloc @creq with kmalloc() instead.
Also drop the @sensitive_size variable/arguments since
kfree_sensitive() doesn’t need it.

Backtrace:

[ 945.272081] ————[ cut here ]————
[ 945.272774] kernel BUG at include/linux/scatterlist.h:209!
[ 945.273520] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC NOPTI
[ 945.274412] CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 56 Comm: kworker/u33:0 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.15.0-lku-11779-g8e9d6efccdd7-dirty #1 PREEMPT(voluntary)
[ 945.275736] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.3-2-gc13ff2cd-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
[ 945.276877] Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-cifs-2)
[ 945.277457] RIP: 0010:crypto_gcm_init_common+0x1f9/0x220
[ 945.278018] Code: b0 00 00 00 48 83 c4 08 5b 5d 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f c3 cc cc cc cc 48 c7 c0 00 00 00 80 48 2b 05 5c 58 e5 00 e9 58 ff ff ff 0b 0f 0b 0f 0b 0f 0b 0f 0b 0f 0b 48 c7 04 24 01 00 00 00 48 8b
[ 945.279992] RSP: 0018:ffffc90000a27360 EFLAGS: 00010246
[ 945.280578] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffc90001d85060 RCX: 0000000000000030
[ 945.281376] RDX: 0000000000080000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffffc90081d85070
[ 945.282145] RBP: ffffc90001d85010 R08: ffffc90001d85000 R09: 0000000000000000
[ 945.282898] R10: ffffc90001d85090 R11: 0000000000001000 R12: ffffc90001d85070
[ 945.283656] R13: ffff888113522948 R14: ffffc90001d85060 R15: ffffc90001d85010
[ 945.284407] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8882e66cf000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[ 945.285262] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[ 945.285884] CR2: 00007fa7ffdd31f4 CR3: 000000010540d000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0
[ 945.286683] Call Trace:
[ 945.286952]
[ 945.287184] ? crypt_message+0x33f/0xad0 [cifs]
[ 945.287719] crypto_gcm_encrypt+0x36/0xe0
[ 945.288152] crypt_message+0x54a/0xad0 [cifs]
[ 945.288724] smb3_init_transform_rq+0x277/0x300 [cifs]
[ 945.289300] smb_send_rqst+0xa3/0x160 [cifs]
[ 945.289944] cifs_call_async+0x178/0x340 [cifs]
[ 945.290514] ? __pfx_smb2_writev_callback+0x10/0x10 [cifs]
[ 945.291177] smb2_async_writev+0x3e3/0x670 [cifs]
[ 945.291759] ? find_held_lock+0x32/0x90
[ 945.292212] ? netfs_advance_write+0xf2/0x310
[ 945.292723] netfs_advance_write+0xf2/0x310
[ 945.293210] netfs_write_folio+0x346/0xcc0
[ 945.293689] ? __pfx__raw_spin_unlock_irq+0x10/0x10
[ 945.294250] netfs_writepages+0x117/0x460
[ 945.294724] do_writepages+0xbe/0x170
[ 945.295152] ? find_held_lock+0x32/0x90
[ 945.295600] ? kvm_sched_clock_read+0x11/0x20
[ 945.296103] __writeback_single_inode+0x56/0x4b0
[ 945.296643] writeback_sb_inodes+0x229/0x550
[ 945.297140] __writeback_inodes_wb+0x4c/0xe0
[ 945.297642] wb_writeback+0x2f1/0x3f0
[ 945.298069] wb_workfn+0x300/0x490
[ 945.298472] process_one_work+0x1fe/0x590
[ 945.298949] worker_thread+0x1ce/0x3c0
[ 945.299397] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
[ 945.299900] kthr
—truncated—

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How to fix CVE-2025-40052

CVE-2025-40052 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix crypto buffers in non-linear memory The crypto API, through the scatterlist API, expects input buffers to be in linear memory. We handle this with the cifs_sg_set_buf() helper that converts vmalloc’d memory to their corresponding pages. However, when we allocate our aead_request buffer […]

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.