CVE-2025-38615 fs/ntfs3: cancle set bad inode after removing name fails
A race condition in the Linux kernel's ntfs3 filesystem allows marking a live inode as bad, potentially causing system instability or denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-38615?
CVE-2025-38615 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/ntfs3: cancle set bad inode after removing name fails
The reproducer uses a file0 on a ntfs3 file system with a corrupted i_link. When renaming, the file0's inode is marked as a bad inode because the file name cannot be deleted.
The underlying bug is that make_bad_inode() is called on a live inode. In some cases it's "icache lookup finds a normal inode, d_splice_alias() is called to attach it to dentry, while another thread decides to call make_bad_inode() on it - that would evict it from icache, but we'd already found it there earlier". In some it's outright "we have an inode attached to dentry - that's how we got it in the first place; let's call make_bad_inode() on it just for shits and giggles".
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38615?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38615?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38615 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38615 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38615, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38615, GHSA-8f4g-p77g-3pf2, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38615, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38615, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38615 and 2 more.