CVE-2025-71151 cifs: Fix memory and information leak in smb3_reconfigure()

What is CVE-2025-71151?

CVE-2025-71151 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 23 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:

cifs: Fix memory and information leak in smb3_reconfigure()

In smb3_reconfigure(), if smb3_sync_session_ctx_passwords() fails, the function returns immediately without freeing and erasing the newly allocated new_password and new_password2. This causes both a memory leak and a potential information leak.

Fix this by calling kfree_sensitive() on both password buffers before returning in this error case.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71151?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-71151?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-71151 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71151 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-71151, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71151, GHSA-mp8m-m46q-cqx4, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71151, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71151.