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CVE-2025-68167 (GCVE-0-2025-68167)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-12-16 13:42 – Updated: 2026-08-05 12:09
VLAI
Title
gpiolib: fix invalid pointer access in debugfs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gpiolib: fix invalid pointer access in debugfs If the memory allocation in gpiolib_seq_start() fails, the s->private field remains uninitialized and is later dereferenced without checking in gpiolib_seq_stop(). Initialize s->private to NULL before calling kzalloc() and check it before dereferencing it.
Severity
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version CPE status
Linux Linux Affected: e348544f7994d252427ed3ae637c7081cbb90f66 , < 70180a6031056096c93ed2f47c41803268bdd91c (git)
Affected: e348544f7994d252427ed3ae637c7081cbb90f66 , < 3c91c8f424d3e44c8645ab765a38773e58afb07d (git)
Affected: e348544f7994d252427ed3ae637c7081cbb90f66 , < 2f6115ad8864cf3f48598f26c74c7c8e5c391919 (git)
guessed Create a notification for this product.
Linux Linux Affected: 6.9
Unaffected: 0 , < 6.9 (semver)
Unaffected: 6.12.58 , ≤ 6.12.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.17.8 , ≤ 6.17.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.18 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
guessed Create a notification for this product.
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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
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        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c"
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          "vendor": "Linux",
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              "status": "affected",
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              "versionType": "git"
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          "versions": [
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                }
              ],
              "negate": false,
              "operator": "OR"
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        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ngpiolib: fix invalid pointer access in debugfs\n\nIf the memory allocation in gpiolib_seq_start() fails, the s-\u003eprivate\nfield remains uninitialized and is later dereferenced without checking\nin gpiolib_seq_stop(). Initialize s-\u003eprivate to NULL before calling\nkzalloc() and check it before dereferencing it."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
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            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
          "scenarios": [
            {
              "lang": "en",
              "value": "AV:L - The vulnerability is reached only by reading the local debugfs file /sys/kernel/debug/gpio; there is no network or remote path into gpiolib\u0027s seq_file handlers.\nAC:L - The attacker fully controls both required conditions \u2014 memory pressure to make the small GFP_KERNEL kzalloc fail, and unbounded repetition of read()/lseek() on the file, each of which drives multiple start/stop cycles \u2014 so the failure can simply be retried until it lands.\nPR:L - The gpio debugfs file is explicitly created world-readable (mode 0444) and needs no capability, so any unprivileged local user reaches it on the many embedded, automotive, industrial and Android deployments that mount debugfs traversable (mode=755 or uid/gid options), which is common precisely because GPIO debugging is the reason debugfs is mounted there.\nUI:N - The attacker triggers the bug entirely through their own read() calls on the debugfs file; no action by any other user or victim process is needed.\nS:U - The corruption stays within the kernel\u0027s own security authority \u2014 freed slab memory and per-CPU SRCU counters \u2014 with no crossing of a VM, IOMMU or sandbox boundary.\nC:H - gpiolib_seq_stop() reads priv-\u003eidx out of an already-freed kmalloc-16 object, and the accompanying double free corrupts the slab freelist, enabling overlapping allocations that yield arbitrary kernel memory disclosure.\nI:H - The stale idx is fed unvalidated into __srcu_read_unlock(), producing this_cpu_inc() at an attacker-influenced out-of-bounds offset from the per-CPU srcu_data, and the subsequent kfree() of an object owned by another allocation is a classic double-free write primitive.\nA:H - On the first iteration s-\u003eprivate is NULL, so gpiolib_seq_stop() dereferences NULL and oopses; on later iterations the use-after-free, wild per-CPU increment and double free reliably panic the kernel."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T12:09:56.647Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
      },
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          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/70180a6031056096c93ed2f47c41803268bdd91c"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3c91c8f424d3e44c8645ab765a38773e58afb07d"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f6115ad8864cf3f48598f26c74c7c8e5c391919"
        }
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      "title": "gpiolib: fix invalid pointer access in debugfs",
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  "cveMetadata": {
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    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2025-68167",
    "datePublished": "2025-12-16T13:42:47.480Z",
    "dateReserved": "2025-12-16T13:41:40.250Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-05T12:09:56.647Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
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  "dataVersion": "5.2",
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      "date": "2026-09-17",
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      "percentile": "0.04661"
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          }
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        "descriptions": [
          {
            "lang": "en",
            "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ngpiolib: fix invalid pointer access in debugfs\n\nIf the memory allocation in gpiolib_seq_start() fails, the s-\u003eprivate\nfield remains uninitialized and is later dereferenced without checking\nin gpiolib_seq_stop(). Initialize s-\u003eprivate to NULL before calling\nkzalloc() and check it before dereferencing it."
          }
        ],
        "id": "CVE-2025-68167",
        "lastModified": "2026-07-30T06:24:31.570",
        "metrics": {
          "cvssMetricV31": [
            {
              "cvssData": {
                "attackComplexity": "LOW",
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                "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
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                "scope": "UNCHANGED",
                "userInteraction": "NONE",
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              "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
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        "published": "2025-12-16T14:15:48.540",
        "references": [
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            "source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
            "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f6115ad8864cf3f48598f26c74c7c8e5c391919"
          },
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        "vulnStatus": "Deferred"
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      "current_release_date": "2026-07-30T08:38:28+00:00",
      "cve": "CVE-2025-68167",
      "id": "CVE-2025-68167",
      "initial_release_date": "2025-12-16T00:00:00+00:00",
      "product_status:known_affected": "90",
      "product_status:known_not_affected": "184",
      "source": "Red Hat CSAF VEX",
      "status": "final",
      "title": "kernel: gpiolib: fix invalid pointer access in debugfs",
      "url": "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-68167.json",
      "version": "3"
    }
  }
}



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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

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Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.


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Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.