# CVE-2025-68373: md: avoid repeated calls to del_gendisk

> A race condition in the Linux kernel md driver allows a local attacker to trigger a use-after-free, potentially causing a system crash or arbitrary code execution.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68373, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68373, GHSA-mh8g-8mjf-q9m9, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68373

## What is CVE-2025-68373?

CVE-2025-68373 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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:

md: avoid repeated calls to del_gendisk

There is a uaf problem which is found by case 23rdev-lifetime:

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdead000000000122
RIP: 0010:bdi_unregister+0x4b/0x170
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __del_gendisk+0x356/0x3e0
 mddev_unlock+0x351/0x360
 rdev_attr_store+0x217/0x280
 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x14a/0x210
 vfs_write+0x29e/0x550
 ksys_write+0x74/0xf0
 do_syscall_64+0xbb/0x380
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7ff5250a177e

The sequence is:
1. rdev remove path gets reconfig_mutex
2. rdev remove path release reconfig_mutex in mddev_unlock
3. md stop calls do_md_stop and sets MD_DELETED
4. rdev remove path calls del_gendisk because MD_DELETED is set
5. md stop path release reconfig_mutex and calls del_gendisk again

So there is a race condition we should resolve. This patch adds a
flag MD_DO_DELETE to avoid the race condition.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68373?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68373?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68373 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68373 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68373 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68373 is an use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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-2025-68373 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-2025-68373/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68373/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68373
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68373
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68373

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68373/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.