CVE-2025-11568 is a vulnerability in the luksmeta utility component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, specifically when managing encrypted devices formatted with the LUKS1 disk encryption standard. The issue arises because luksmeta does not properly validate the amount of metadata it writes to the encrypted device. An attacker possessing the necessary elevated privileges (local authenticated user with high permissions) can exploit this flaw by instructing luksmeta to write an excessive amount of metadata. Due to the lack of validation on available space, this metadata write operation can overflow the allocated metadata area and overwrite the encrypted user data itself, causing irreversible corruption. This vulnerability impacts data integrity and availability but does not compromise confidentiality directly. It is limited to LUKS1 encrypted devices; newer LUKS formats are not vulnerable. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.4 (medium), reflecting the requirement for local privileged access and the absence of confidentiality impact or remote exploitation. No user interaction is needed, and no known public exploits have been reported. The vulnerability was published on October 15, 2025, and remains a concern for environments relying on LUKS1 encryption on RHEL 10 systems.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-11568 is the risk of permanent data loss on encrypted storage devices using LUKS1 format under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. This can disrupt business operations, especially for sectors relying heavily on data integrity such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. Since the vulnerability requires local privileged access, the threat is mainly from insider threats or attackers who have already gained elevated access through other means. The corruption of encrypted data can lead to costly data recovery efforts or permanent loss of sensitive information, potentially violating data protection regulations like GDPR if backups are insufficient. Availability of critical systems may be affected if encrypted volumes become unusable. However, the vulnerability does not allow data disclosure or remote compromise, limiting its scope to data integrity and availability concerns.

To mitigate CVE-2025-11568, European organizations should: 1) Avoid using the LUKS1 encryption format on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 systems where possible; migrate to newer LUKS formats that are not affected. 2) Restrict access to the luksmeta utility strictly to trusted administrators and implement strong access controls and auditing to detect unauthorized usage. 3) Regularly back up encrypted data and metadata to enable recovery in case of corruption. 4) Monitor system logs for unusual metadata write operations or errors related to luksmeta. 5) Apply any patches or updates from Red Hat as soon as they become available, even though no patch links are currently provided. 6) Employ least privilege principles to minimize the number of users with high-level permissions capable of exploiting this vulnerability. 7) Conduct periodic security reviews of encryption management procedures to ensure compliance and reduce risk.