CVE Catalog

CVE-2025-68820

Low risk· EPSS 7%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

7th percentile - higher than 7% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel ext4 filesystem, a null pointer dereference vulnerability was found in ext4_raw_inode(). If ext4_get_inode_loc() fails (e.g. due to filesystem corruption), the buffer head remains NULL, and missing error checking in ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all() leads to a kernel crash.

Risk Assessment

An attacker can deliberately corrupt the ext4 filesystem to cause a denial of service (kernel panic) by triggering a null pointer dereference during extended attribute operations.

Recommendation

Immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix. Monitor ext4 filesystem integrity using fsck.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: xattr: fix null pointer deref in ext4_raw_inode() If ext4_get_inode_loc() fails (e.g. if it returns -EFSCORRUPTED), iloc.bh will remain set to NULL. Since ext4_xattr_inode_dec_ref_all() lacks error checking, this will lead to a null pointer dereference in ext4_raw_inode(), called right after ext4_get_inode_loc(). Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with SVACE.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS