# CVE-2025-68198: crash: fix crashkernel resource shrink

> A local attacker with high privileges can trigger a kernel crash by improperly shrinking crashkernel memory, causing a null pointer dereference.

- **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:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-72442, BELL-CVE-2025-68198, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68198, GHSA-5m36-f3qj-8wr2, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68198, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68198

## What is CVE-2025-68198?

CVE-2025-68198 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:

crash: fix crashkernel resource shrink

When crashkernel is configured with a high reservation, shrinking its
value below the low crashkernel reservation causes two issues:

1. Invalid crashkernel resource objects
2. Kernel crash if crashkernel shrinking is done twice

For example, with crashkernel=200M,high, the kernel reserves 200MB of high
memory and some default low memory (say 256MB).  The reservation appears
as:

cat /proc/iomem | grep -i crash
af000000-beffffff : Crash kernel
433000000-43f7fffff : Crash kernel

If crashkernel is then shrunk to 50MB (echo 52428800 >
/sys/kernel/kexec_crash_size), /proc/iomem still shows 256MB reserved:
af000000-beffffff : Crash kernel

Instead, it should show 50MB:
af000000-b21fffff : Crash kernel

Further shrinking crashkernel to 40MB causes a kernel crash with the
following trace (x86):

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000038
PGD 0 P4D 0
Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
<snip...>
Call Trace: <TASK>
? __die_body.cold+0x19/0x27
? page_fault_oops+0x15a/0x2f0
? search_module_extables+0x19/0x60
? search_bpf_extables+0x5f/0x80
? exc_page_fault+0x7e/0x180
? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30
? __release_resource+0xd/0xb0
release_resource+0x26/0x40
__crash_shrink_memory+0xe5/0x110
crash_shrink_memory+0x12a/0x190
kexec_crash_size_store+0x41/0x80
kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x141/0x1f0
vfs_write+0x294/0x460
ksys_write+0x6d/0xf0
<snip...>

This happens because __crash_shrink_memory()/kernel/crash_core.c
incorrectly updates the crashk_res resource object even when
crashk_low_res should be updated.

Fix this by ensuring the correct crashkernel resource object is updated
when shrinking crashkernel memory.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68198?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68198?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68198 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68198 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68198 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68198 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68198 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-2025-68198/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68198/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68198
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68198
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68198

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68198/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.