# CVE-2025-40138: f2fs: fix to avoid NULL pointer dereference in f2fs_check_quota_consistency()

> A local attacker with root privileges can cause a kernel crash via a NULL pointer dereference in the f2fs filesystem during remount operations.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 12 Nov 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-40138, GHSA-p3hr-r37g-j63r, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40138

## What is CVE-2025-40138?

CVE-2025-40138 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:

f2fs: fix to avoid NULL pointer dereference in f2fs_check_quota_consistency()

syzbot reported a f2fs bug as below:

Oops: gen[  107.736417][ T5848] Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007]
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5848 Comm: syz-executor263 Tainted: G        W           6.17.0-rc1-syzkaller-00014-g0e39a731820a #0 PREEMPT_{RT,(full)}
RIP: 0010:strcmp+0x3c/0xc0 lib/string.c:284
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 f2fs_check_quota_consistency fs/f2fs/super.c:1188 [inline]
 f2fs_check_opt_consistency+0x1378/0x2c10 fs/f2fs/super.c:1436
 __f2fs_remount fs/f2fs/super.c:2653 [inline]
 f2fs_reconfigure+0x482/0x1770 fs/f2fs/super.c:5297
 reconfigure_super+0x224/0x890 fs/super.c:1077
 do_remount fs/namespace.c:3314 [inline]
 path_mount+0xd18/0xfe0 fs/namespace.c:4112
 do_mount fs/namespace.c:4133 [inline]
 __do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4344 [inline]
 __se_sys_mount+0x317/0x410 fs/namespace.c:4321
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xfa/0x3b0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

The direct reason is f2fs_check_quota_consistency() may suffer null-ptr-deref
issue in strcmp().

The bug can be reproduced w/ below scripts:
mkfs.f2fs -f /dev/vdb
mount -t f2fs -o usrquota /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs
quotacheck -uc /mnt/f2fs/
umount /mnt/f2fs
mount -t f2fs -o usrjquota=aquota.user,jqfmt=vfsold /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs
mount -t f2fs -o remount,usrjquota=,jqfmt=vfsold /dev/vdb /mnt/f2fs
umount /mnt/f2fs

So, before old_qname and new_qname comparison, we need to check whether
they are all valid pointers, fix it.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40138?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-40138?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-40138 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40138 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-40138 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-40138 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40138 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-2025-40138/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40138/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-40138
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40138
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-40138

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40138/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.