CVE-2025-68319
- Published: 2025-12-16T16:16:11.483
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
netconsole: Acquire su_mutex before navigating configs hierarchy
There is a race between operations that iterate over the userdata
cg_children list and concurrent add/remove of userdata items through
configfs. The update_userdata() function iterates over the
nt->userdata_group.cg_children list, and count_extradata_entries() also
iterates over this same list to count nodes.
Quoting from Documentation/filesystems/configfs.rst:
> A subsystem can navigate the cg_children list and the ci_parent pointer
> to see the tree created by the subsystem. This can race with configfs’
> management of the hierarchy, so configfs uses the subsystem mutex to
> protect modifications. Whenever a subsystem wants to navigate the
> hierarchy, it must do so under the protection of the subsystem
> mutex.
Without proper locking, if a userdata item is added or removed
concurrently while these functions are iterating, the list can be
accessed in an inconsistent state. For example, the list_for_each() loop
can reach a node that is being removed from the list by list_del_init()
which sets the nodes’ .next pointer to point to itself, so the loop will
never end (or reach the WARN_ON_ONCE in update_userdata() ).
Fix this by holding the configfs subsystem mutex (su_mutex) during all
operations that iterate over cg_children.
This includes:
– userdatum_value_store() which calls update_userdata() to iterate over
cg_children
– All sysdata_*_enabled_store() functions which call
count_extradata_entries() to iterate over cg_children
The su_mutex must be acquired before dynamic_netconsole_mutex to avoid
potential lock ordering issues, as configfs operations may already hold
su_mutex when calling into our code.
Related CVE by CWE
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How to fix CVE-2025-68319
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netconsole: Acquire su_mutex before navigating configs hierarchy There is a race between operations that iterate over the userdata cg_children list and concurrent add/remove of userdata items through configfs. The update_userdata() function iterates over the nt->userdata_group.cg_children list, and count_extradata_entries() also iterates over this same list to […]
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
Vulnerability Timeline
CVE details first published to NVD database
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No vendor/product data available.