CVE-2025-40237
UNSCOREDDescription
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/notify: call exportfs_encode_fid with s_umount Calling intotify_show_fdinfo() on fd watching an overlayfs inode, while the overlayfs is being unmounted, can lead to dereferencing NULL ptr. This issue was found by syzkaller. Race Condition Diagram: Thread 1 Thread 2 -------- -------- generic_shutdown_super() shrink_dcache_for_umount sb->s_root = NULL | | vfs_read() | inotify_fdinfo() | * inode get from mark * | show_mark_fhandle(m, inode) | exportfs_encode_fid(inode, ..) | ovl_encode_fh(inode, ..) | ovl_check_encode_origin(inode) | * deref i_sb->s_root * | | v fsnotify_sb_delete(sb) Which then leads to: [ 32.133461] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000006: 0000 [#1] SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC KASAN NOPTI [ 32.134438] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000030-0x0000000000000037] [ 32.135032] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 4468 Comm: systemd-coredum Not tainted 6.17.0-rc6 #22 PREEMPT(none) <snip registers, unreliable trace> [ 32.143353] Call Trace: [ 32.143732] ovl_encode_fh+0xd5/0x170 [ 32.144031] exportfs_encode_inode_fh+0x12f/0x300 [ 32.144425] show_mark_fhandle+0xbe/0x1f0 [ 32.145805] inotify_fdinfo+0x226/0x2d0 [ 32.146442] inotify_show_fdinfo+0x1c5/0x350 [ 32.147168] seq_show+0x530/0x6f0 [ 32.147449] seq_read_iter+0x503/0x12a0 [ 32.148419] seq_read+0x31f/0x410 [ 32.150714] vfs_read+0x1f0/0x9e0 [ 32.152297] ksys_read+0x125/0x240 IOW ovl_check_encode_origin derefs inode->i_sb->s_root, after it was set to NULL in the unmount path. Fix it by protecting calling exportfs_encode_fid() from show_mark_fhandle() with s_umount lock. This form of fix was suggested by Amir in [1]. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAOQ4uxhbDwhb+2Brs1UdkoF0a3NSdBAOQPNfEHjahrgoKJpLEw@mail.gmail.com/
How to fix
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3.1 Vector
No CVSS vector data available.
Exploit Intelligence
Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 7% of all known CVEs.
References
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Start freeThis product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-12-23.