CVE-2025-40138

  • Published: 2025-11-12T11:15:43.553

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

f2fs: fix to avoid NULL pointer dereference in f2fs_check_quota_consistency()

syzbot reported a f2fs bug as below:

Oops: gen[ 107.736417][ T5848] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007]
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5848 Comm: syz-executor263 Tainted: G W 6.17.0-rc1-syzkaller-00014-g0e39a731820a #0 PREEMPT_{RT,(full)}
RIP: 0010:strcmp+0x3c/0xc0 lib/string.c:284
Call Trace:

f2fs_check_quota_consistency fs/f2fs/super.c:1188 [inline]
f2fs_check_opt_consistency+0x1378/0x2c10 fs/f2fs/super.c:1436
__f2fs_remount fs/f2fs/super.c:2653 [inline]
f2fs_reconfigure+0x482/0x1770 fs/f2fs/super.c:5297
reconfigure_super+0x224/0x890 fs/super.c:1077
do_remount fs/namespace.c:3314 [inline]
path_mount+0xd18/0xfe0 fs/namespace.c:4112
do_mount fs/namespace.c:4133 [inline]
__do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4344 [inline]
__se_sys_mount+0x317/0x410 fs/namespace.c:4321
do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

The direct reason is f2fs_check_quota_consistency() may suffer null-ptr-deref
issue in strcmp().

The bug can be reproduced w/ below scripts:
mkfs.f2fs -f /dev/vdb
mount -t f2fs -o usrquota /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs
quotacheck -uc /mnt/f2fs/
umount /mnt/f2fs
mount -t f2fs -o usrjquota=aquota.user,jqfmt=vfsold /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs
mount -t f2fs -o remount,usrjquota=,jqfmt=vfsold /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs
umount /mnt/f2fs

So, before old_qname and new_qname comparison, we need to check whether
they are all valid pointers, fix it.

Related CVE by CWE

No related CWE found.

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How to fix CVE-2025-40138

CVE-2025-40138 is a unknown severity vulnerability affecting the affected product.

Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: fix to avoid NULL pointer dereference in f2fs_check_quota_consistency() syzbot reported a f2fs bug as below: Oops: gen[ 107.736417][ T5848] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5848 […]

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

Nov 12, 2025
Vulnerability Published

CVE details first published to NVD database

Nov 12, 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.