VulnerabilityPublished 28 Oct 2025Updated 31 Jul 2026

CVE-2025-40079: Linux kernel · riscv, bpf: Sign extend struct ops return values properly

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High · fixed in 6.8.0-1052.55~22.04.1 : patch Linux kernel soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.8High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 4% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 6.8.0-1052.55~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1051.57~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1050.53~22.04.1 +2

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 28 Oct 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-hw24-w8rj-6q65

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
linux-hwe-edge	Affected <6.8.0-1050.53~22.04.1 <6.8.0-1051.57~22.04.1 <6.8.0-1052.55~22.04.1 <6.8.0-106.106~22.04.1 <6.8.0-1049.49~22.04.1	Fixed in 6.8.0-1050.53~22.04.1 6.8.0-1051.57~22.04.1 6.8.0-1052.55~22.04.1 6.8.0-106.106~22.04.1 6.8.0-1049.49~22.04.1

AI-suggested

Since this is a kernel-level issue, applying the official Linux kernel updates that include the fix for CVE-2025-40079 is recommended once available. Until then, avoid running untrusted BPF programs on RISC-V systems and monitor for vendor advisories.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv, bpf: Sign extend struct ops return values properly The ns_bpf_qdisc selftest triggers a kernel panic: Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffffffffa38dbf58 Current test_progs pgtable: 4K pagesize, 57-bit VAs, pgdp=0x00000001109cc000 [ffffffffa38dbf58] pgd=000000011fffd801, p4d=000000011fffd401, pud=000000011fffd001, pmd=0000000000000000 Oops [#1] Modules linked in: bpf_testmod(OE) xt_conntrack nls_iso8859_1 [...] [last unloaded: bpf_testmod(OE)] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 23584 Comm: test_progs Tainted: G W OE 6.17.0-rc1-g2465bb83e0b4 #1 NONE Tainted: [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE Hardware name: Unknown Unknown Product/Unknown Product, BIOS 2024.01+dfsg-1ubuntu5.1 01/01/2024 epc : __qdisc_run+0x82/0x6f0 ra : __qdisc_run+0x6e/0x6f0 epc : ffffffff80bd5c7a ra : ffffffff80bd5c66 sp : ff2000000eecb550 gp : ffffffff82472098 tp : ff60000096895940 t0 : ffffffff8001f180 t1 : ffffffff801e1664 t2 : 0000000000000000 s0 : ff2000000eecb5d0 s1 : ff60000093a6a600 a0 : ffffffffa38dbee8 a1 : 0000000000000001 a2 : ff2000000eecb510 a3 : 0000000000000001 a4 : 0000000000000000 a5 : 0000000000000010 a6 : 0000000000000000 a7 : 0000000000735049 s2 : ffffffffa38dbee8 s3 : 0000000000000040 s4 : ff6000008bcda000 s5 : 0000000000000008 s6 : ff60000093a6a680 s7 : ff60000093a6a6f0 s8 : ff60000093a6a6ac s9 : ff60000093140000 s10: 0000000000000000 s11: ff2000000eecb9d0 t3 : 0000000000000000 t4 : 0000000000ff0000 t5 : 0000000000000000 t6 : ff60000093a6a8b6 status: 0000000200000120 badaddr: ffffffffa38dbf58 cause: 000000000000000d [<ffffffff80bd5c7a>] __qdisc_run+0x82/0x6f0 [<ffffffff80b6fe58>] __dev_queue_xmit+0x4c0/0x1128 [<ffffffff80b80ae0>] neigh_resolve_output+0xd0/0x170 [<ffffffff80d2daf6>] ip6_finish_output2+0x226/0x6c8 [<ffffffff80d31254>] ip6_finish_output+0x10c/0x2a0 [<ffffffff80d31446>] ip6_output+0x5e/0x178 [<ffffffff80d2e232>] ip6_xmit+0x29a/0x608 [<ffffffff80d6f4c6>] inet6_csk_xmit+0xe6/0x140 [<ffffffff80c985e4>] __tcp_transmit_skb+0x45c/0xaa8 [<ffffffff80c995fe>] tcp_connect+0x9ce/0xd10 [<ffffffff80d66524>] tcp_v6_connect+0x4ac/0x5e8 [<ffffffff80cc19b8>] __inet_stream_connect+0xd8/0x318 [<ffffffff80cc1c36>] inet_stream_connect+0x3e/0x68 [<ffffffff80b42b20>] __sys_connect_file+0x50/0x88 [<ffffffff80b42bee>] __sys_connect+0x96/0xc8 [<ffffffff80b42c40>] __riscv_sys_connect+0x20/0x30 [<ffffffff80e5bcae>] do_trap_ecall_u+0x256/0x378 [<ffffffff80e69af2>] handle_exception+0x14a/0x156 Code: 892a 0363 1205 489c 8bc1 c7e5 2d03 084a 2703 080a (2783) 0709 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- The bpf_fifo_dequeue prog returns a skb which is a pointer. The pointer is treated as a 32bit value and sign extend to 64bit in epilogue. This behavior is right for most bpf prog types but wrong for struct ops which requires RISC-V ABI. So let's sign extend struct ops return values according to the function model and RISC-V ABI([0]). [0]: https://riscv.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/riscv-calling.pdf

Impact

The vulnerability can cause a kernel panic on affected systems running the Linux kernel on RISC-V architecture, leading to denial of service. The CVSS vector indicates local attack vector with low complexity, requiring low privileges and no user interaction, with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. No known exploits in the wild have been reported.

Summary

The Linux kernel contained a vulnerability in the RISC-V BPF implementation where struct ops return values were not properly sign-extended. Specifically, the bpf_fifo_dequeue program returns a pointer (skb), which was treated as a 32-bit value and sign-extended to 64-bit in the epilogue. While this behavior is correct for most BPF program types, it is incorrect for struct ops that require adherence to the RISC-V ABI. This flaw could cause a kernel panic, as demonstrated by the ns_bpf_qdisc selftest. The vulnerability was addressed by modifying the sign extension of struct ops return values to comply with the RISC-V function model and ABI.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 30 Jul 2026, 16:23 UTC

Technical details

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