CVE-2025-40355 sysfs: check visibility before changing group attribute ownership
A local attacker with high privileges can trigger a kernel warning and potential crash by changing network namespace attributes that are not visible.
- 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-2025-40355?
CVE-2025-40355 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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:
sysfs: check visibility before changing group attribute ownership
Since commit 0c17270f9b92 ("net: sysfs: Implement is_visible for phys_(port_id, port_name, switch_id)"), __dev_change_net_namespace() can hit WARN_ON() when trying to change owner of a file that isn't visible. See the trace below:
WARNING: CPU: 6 PID: 2938 at net/core/dev.c:12410 __dev_change_net_namespace+0xb89/0xc30 CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 2938 Comm: incusd Not tainted 6.17.1-1-mainline #1 PREEMPT(full) 4b783b4a638669fb644857f484487d17cb45ed1f Hardware name: Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040Series)/FRANMDCP07, BIOS 03.07 02/19/2025 RIP: 0010:__dev_change_net_namespace+0xb89/0xc30 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> ? if6_seq_show+0x30/0x50 do_setlink.isra.0+0xc7/0x1270 ? __nla_validate_parse+0x5c/0xcc0 ? security_capable+0x94/0x1a0 rtnl_newlink+0x858/0xc20 ? update_curr+0x8e/0x1c0 ? update_entity_lag+0x71/0x80 ? sched_balance_newidle+0x358/0x450 ? psi_task_switch+0x113/0x2a0 ? __pfx_rtnl_newlink+0x10/0x10 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x346/0x3e0 ? sched_clock+0x10/0x30 ? __pfx_rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10 netlink_rcv_skb+0x59/0x110 netlink_unicast+0x285/0x3c0 ? __alloc_skb+0xdb/0x1a0 netlink_sendmsg+0x20d/0x430 ____sys_sendmsg+0x39f/0x3d0 ? import_iovec+0x2f/0x40 ___sys_sendmsg+0x99/0xe0 __sys_sendmsg+0x8a/0xf0 do_syscall_64+0x81/0x970 ? __sys_bind+0xe3/0x110 ? syscall_exit_work+0x143/0x1b0 ? do_syscall_64+0x244/0x970 ? sock_alloc_file+0x63/0xc0 ? syscall_exit_work+0x143/0x1b0 ? do_syscall_64+0x244/0x970 ? alloc_fd+0x12e/0x190 ? put_unused_fd+0x2a/0x70 ? do_sys_openat2+0xa2/0xe0 ? syscall_exit_work+0x143/0x1b0 ? do_syscall_64+0x244/0x970 ? exc_page_fault+0x7e/0x1a0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [...] </TASK>
Fix this by checking is_visible() before trying to touch the attribute.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40355?
How do I fix CVE-2025-40355?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-40355 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40355 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-72487, BELL-CVE-2025-40355, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40355, GHSA-69f6-7cp5-89jr, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-40355, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-40355 and 4 more.