CVE-2025-40119 ext4: fix potential null deref in ext4_mb_init()
A local attacker with mount privileges can cause a kernel crash via null pointer dereference in ext4 filesystem initialization.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-40119?
CVE-2025-40119 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 12 Nov 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:
ext4: fix potential null deref in ext4_mb_init()
In ext4_mb_init(), ext4_mb_avg_fragment_size_destroy() may be called when sbi->s_mb_avg_fragment_size remains uninitialized (e.g., if groupinfo slab cache allocation fails). Since ext4_mb_avg_fragment_size_destroy() lacks null pointer checking, this leads to a null pointer dereference.
================================================================== EXT4-fs: no memory for groupinfo slab cache BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP PTI CPU:2 UID: 0 PID: 87 Comm:mount Not tainted 6.17.0-rc2 #1134 PREEMPT(none) RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x1b/0x40 Call Trace: <TASK> xa_destroy+0x61/0x130 ext4_mb_init+0x483/0x540 __ext4_fill_super+0x116d/0x17b0 ext4_fill_super+0xd3/0x280 get_tree_bdev_flags+0x132/0x1d0 vfs_get_tree+0x29/0xd0 do_new_mount+0x197/0x300 __x64_sys_mount+0x116/0x150 do_syscall_64+0x50/0x1c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e ==================================================================
Therefore, add necessary null check to ext4_mb_avg_fragment_size_destroy() to prevent this issue. The same fix is also applied to ext4_mb_largest_free_orders_destroy().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40119?
How do I fix CVE-2025-40119?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-40119 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40119 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-40119, GHSA-336v-j3x2-qmh8, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40119.