# 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.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 28 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 23 Aug 2026
- **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, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-40054, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-40054, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40054

## 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.

## Is CVE-2025-40054 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40054 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-40054 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40054 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40054/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40054/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-40054
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40054
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-40054

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40054/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.