CVE-2025-68369 ntfs3: init run lock for extend inode
A missing lock initialization in the Linux kernel ntfs3 driver causes a crash when truncating the $Extend inode, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-68369?
CVE-2025-68369 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ntfs3: init run lock for extend inode
After setting the inode mode of $Extend to a regular file, executing the truncate system call will enter the do_truncate() routine, causing the run_lock uninitialized error reported by syzbot.
Prior to patch 4e8011ffec79, if the inode mode of $Extend was not set to a regular file, the do_truncate() routine would not be entered.
Add the run_lock initialization when loading $Extend.
syzbot reported: INFO: trying to register non-static key. Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x189/0x250 lib/dump_stack.c:120 assign_lock_key+0x133/0x150 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:984 register_lock_class+0x105/0x320 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:1299 __lock_acquire+0x99/0xd20 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5112 lock_acquire+0x120/0x360 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5868 down_write+0x96/0x1f0 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1590 ntfs_set_size+0x140/0x200 fs/ntfs3/inode.c:860 ntfs_extend+0x1d9/0x970 fs/ntfs3/file.c:387 ntfs_setattr+0x2e8/0xbe0 fs/ntfs3/file.c:808
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68369?
How do I fix CVE-2025-68369?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-68369 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68369 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-68369, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68369, GHSA-9m7w-275g-v9x3, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68369, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68369.