# CVE-2025-71123: ext4: fix string copying in parse_apply_sb_mount_options()

> A buffer overflow in the Linux kernel ext4 filesystem can cause a system crash when mounting a specially crafted filesystem image.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** 14 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-71123, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71123, GHSA-mcqf-m32c-3xwp, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71123

## What is CVE-2025-71123?

CVE-2025-71123 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Jan 2026. 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:

ext4: fix string copying in parse_apply_sb_mount_options()

strscpy_pad() can't be used to copy a non-NUL-term string into a NUL-term
string of possibly bigger size.  Commit 0efc5990bca5 ("string.h: Introduce
memtostr() and memtostr_pad()") provides additional information in that
regard.  So if this happens, the following warning is observed:

strnlen: detected buffer overflow: 65 byte read of buffer size 64
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 28655 at lib/string_helpers.c:1032 __fortify_report+0x96/0xc0 lib/string_helpers.c:1032
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 28655 Comm: syz-executor.3 Not tainted 6.12.54-syzkaller-00144-g5f0270f1ba00 #0
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:__fortify_report+0x96/0xc0 lib/string_helpers.c:1032
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __fortify_panic+0x1f/0x30 lib/string_helpers.c:1039
 strnlen include/linux/fortify-string.h:235 [inline]
 sized_strscpy include/linux/fortify-string.h:309 [inline]
 parse_apply_sb_mount_options fs/ext4/super.c:2504 [inline]
 __ext4_fill_super fs/ext4/super.c:5261 [inline]
 ext4_fill_super+0x3c35/0xad00 fs/ext4/super.c:5706
 get_tree_bdev_flags+0x387/0x620 fs/super.c:1636
 vfs_get_tree+0x93/0x380 fs/super.c:1814
 do_new_mount fs/namespace.c:3553 [inline]
 path_mount+0x6ae/0x1f70 fs/namespace.c:3880
 do_mount fs/namespace.c:3893 [inline]
 __do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4103 [inline]
 __se_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4080 [inline]
 __x64_sys_mount+0x280/0x300 fs/namespace.c:4080
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x64/0x140 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

Since userspace is expected to provide s_mount_opts field to be at most 63
characters long with the ending byte being NUL-term, use a 64-byte buffer
which matches the size of s_mount_opts, so that strscpy_pad() does its job
properly.  Return with error if the user still managed to provide a
non-NUL-term string here.

Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71123?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-71123?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-71123 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71123 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-71123 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-71123 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Jan 2026. 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-2025-71123 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2025-71123/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71123/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71123
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71123
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-71123

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71123/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.