CVE-2025-40052
Unknown Unknown - Not Provided
BaseFortify

Publication date: 2025-10-28

Last updated on: 2025-10-30

Assigner: kernel.org

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 (@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 <0f> 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] <TASK> [ 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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Meta Information
Published
2025-10-28
Last Modified
2025-10-30
Generated
2026-05-07
AI Q&A
2025-10-28
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-05
NVD
CVE-2025-40052
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel 6.15.0
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability occurs in the Linux kernel's SMB client crypto implementation. The crypto API expects input buffers to be in linear memory, but the code allocates certain buffers using kvzalloc(), which can place them in vmalloc (non-linear) memory. When many parallel encrypted reads and writes happen, this can cause a kernel BUG due to invalid memory handling in the scatterlist API, leading to crashes. The fix is to allocate these buffers with kmalloc() to ensure they are in linear memory.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can cause kernel crashes (BUGs) when performing many parallel encrypted SMB reads and writes, potentially leading to system instability or denial of service on affected Linux systems using encrypted SMB mounts.


How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?

This vulnerability can be detected by monitoring for kernel BUG messages related to scatterlist.h and crypto operations, especially when performing many parallel reads and writes on encrypted CIFS mounts. Checking kernel logs (e.g., using 'dmesg' or 'journalctl') for messages like 'kernel BUG at include/linux/scatterlist.h' or 'Oops: invalid opcode' during CIFS operations can indicate the presence of this issue. Example commands to detect this include: 'dmesg | grep -i scatterlist', 'dmesg | grep -i cifs', or 'journalctl -k | grep -i crypto'.


What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?

The immediate mitigation is to update the Linux kernel to a version where this vulnerability is fixed, which involves allocating the aead_request buffer with kmalloc() instead of kvzalloc(). Until an update is applied, reducing the number of parallel reads and writes on encrypted CIFS mounts may help avoid triggering the bug. Monitoring for kernel crashes and avoiding heavy encrypted CIFS I/O workloads can reduce the risk.


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