CVE-2025-40054 f2fs: fix UAF issue in f2fs_merge_page_bio()
A use-after-free race condition in the Linux kernel's f2fs filesystem can cause a system crash during writeback operations.
- 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-2025-40054?
CVE-2025-40054 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 28 Oct 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:
f2fs: fix UAF issue in f2fs_merge_page_bio()
As JY reported in bugzilla [1],
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 pc : [0xffffffe51d249484] f2fs_is_cp_guaranteed+0x70/0x98 lr : [0xffffffe51d24adbc] f2fs_merge_page_bio+0x520/0x6d4 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 6790 Comm: kworker/u16:3 Tainted: P B W OE 6.12.30-android16-5-maybe-dirty-4k #1 5f7701c9cbf727d1eebe77c89bbbeb3371e895e5 Tainted: [P]=PROPRIETARY_MODULE, [B]=BAD_PAGE, [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-254:49) Call trace: f2fs_is_cp_guaranteed+0x70/0x98 f2fs_inplace_write_data+0x174/0x2f4 f2fs_do_write_data_page+0x214/0x81c f2fs_write_single_data_page+0x28c/0x764 f2fs_write_data_pages+0x78c/0xce4 do_writepages+0xe8/0x2fc __writeback_single_inode+0x4c/0x4b4 writeback_sb_inodes+0x314/0x540 __writeback_inodes_wb+0xa4/0xf4 wb_writeback+0x160/0x448 wb_workfn+0x2f0/0x5dc process_scheduled_works+0x1c8/0x458 worker_thread+0x334/0x3f0 kthread+0x118/0x1ac ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
[1] https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220575
The panic was caused by UAF issue w/ below race condition:
kworker - writepages - f2fs_write_cache_pages - f2fs_write_single_data_page - f2fs_do_write_data_page - f2fs_inplace_write_data - f2fs_merge_page_bio - add_inu_page : cache page #1 into bio & cache bio in io->bio_list - f2fs_write_single_data_page - f2fs_do_write_data_page - f2fs_inplace_write_data - f2fs_merge_page_bio - add_inu_page : cache page #2 into bio which is linked in io->bio_list write - f2fs_write_begin : write page #1 - f2fs_folio_wait_writeback - f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write - f2fs_submit_write_bio : submit bio which inclues page #1 and #2
software IRQ - f2fs_write_end_io - fscrypt_free_bounce_page : freed bounced page which belongs to page #2 - inc_page_count( , WB_DATA_TYPE(data_folio), false) : data_folio points to fio->encrypted_page the bounced page can be freed before accessing it in f2fs_is_cp_guarantee()
It can reproduce w/ below testcase: Run below script in shell #1: for ((i=1;i>0;i++)) do xfs_io -f /mnt/f2fs/enc/file \ -c "pwrite 0 32k" -c "fdatasync"
Run below script in shell #2: for ((i=1;i>0;i++)) do xfs_io -f /mnt/f2fs/enc/file \ -c "pwrite 0 32k" -c "fdatasync"
So, in f2fs_merge_page_bio(), let's avoid using fio->encrypted_page after commit page into internal ipu cache.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40054?
How do I fix CVE-2025-40054?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2025-40054 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40054 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-40054, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40054, GHSA-2xf6-75gh-3848, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-40054, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-40054, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-40054 and 3 more.