CVE-2025-40306
- Published: 2025-12-08T01:16:02.820
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
orangefs: fix xattr related buffer overflow…
Willy Tarreau forwarded me a message from
Disclosure with the following
warning:
> The helper `xattr_key()` uses the pointer variable in the loop condition
> rather than dereferencing it. As `key` is incremented, it remains non-NULL
> (until it runs into unmapped memory), so the loop does not terminate on
> valid C strings and will walk memory indefinitely, consuming CPU or hanging
> the thread.
I easily reproduced this with setfattr and getfattr, causing a kernel
oops, hung user processes and corrupted orangefs files. Disclosure
sent along a diff (not a patch) with a suggested fix, which I based
this patch on.
After xattr_key started working right, xfstest generic/069 exposed an
xattr related memory leak that lead to OOM. xattr_key returns
a hashed key. When adding xattrs to the orangefs xattr cache, orangefs
used hash_add, a kernel hashing macro. hash_add also hashes the key using
hash_log which resulted in additions to the xattr cache going to the wrong
hash bucket. generic/069 tortures a single file and orangefs does a
getattr for the xattr “security.capability” every time. Orangefs
negative caches on xattrs which includes a kmalloc. Since adds to the
xattr cache were going to the wrong bucket, every getattr for
“security.capability” resulted in another kmalloc, none of which were
ever freed.
I changed the two uses of hash_add to hlist_add_head instead
and the memory leak ceased and generic/069 quit throwing furniture.
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How to fix CVE-2025-40306
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: orangefs: fix xattr related buffer overflow… Willy Tarreau forwarded me a message from Disclosure with the following warning: > The helper `xattr_key()` uses the pointer variable in the loop condition > rather than dereferencing it. As `key` is incremented, it remains non-NULL > (until it […]
Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public
How to Fix:
- Check if you're running the affected product
- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access
- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)
- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations
Exploit Difficulty Assessment
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